


A New Kind of War

by FrancisGuy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games), Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Post-Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Pre-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars References, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:01:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 43,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23774995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrancisGuy/pseuds/FrancisGuy
Summary: This is a hard-reboot of "The Trouble With Crystals" By: Sith Lord Darth Revan. It is one of my favorite concepts and stories of all times. Revan from the popular KOTOR games finds himself in the Clone Wars Era of Star Wars, 4,000 years after his own time. Now, the once conqueror turned savior must choose to either save this new galaxy, or watch it be destroyed.
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 120
Kudos: 144





	1. Prologue - What Could Have Been

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Trouble With Crystals](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/609709) by Sith Lord Darth Revan. 



> A/N: Hello anyone who somehow managed to find their way here and thank you for taking the time to read my humble offering. This is the first FanFic I have every written, but I do have some minor experience with writing so I will do my best to find any grammar or spelling mistakes before I upload a new section, but please forgive me if some slip through the cracks. As I mentioned in the story’s description this is a hard-reboot of “The Trouble With Crystals” By: Sith Lord Darth Revan, which you can still find on Fanfiction.net very easily. (I did try and contact the author but have received no reply) What inspired me to do this reboot is that the stories written by Sith Lord Darth Revan were actually some of the first stories that ever inspired me to begin writing in the first place. Unfortunately, while the anonymous author obviously had a great amount of skill and love for their work, none of their stories ever actually reached their completion, and I know myself and many others wished that they had. With all this in mind those of you who have read “The Trouble With Crystals” (TTWC) will immediately seem the similarities and influence. Please note I am NOT copying or pasting ANYTHING that rightfully belongs to the original author. All my work is my own. If you have not read the story I am talking about, please go give it a read and a favorite, maybe even message the author as their work deserves some love, and maybe they will come back to finish what they started. Lastly, I will not be following the overall plot of TTWC for very long, I wanted the author to go in a different direction with the story than they did so this is me doing just that. I hope you all enjoy the story, sorry for the very long author’s note, and please leave me any reviews, comments, or suggestions you have. I am 100% just writing this for fun and thought maybe some of you would enjoy reading what I have been coming up with. Thanks again!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, any of the characters under that license, or anything that has been made by Lucas Arts/Disney. This is a fanfic and I have no legal rights to any of the entities presented in the story.

Prologue – What Could Have Been

  
As the sun began to set on a dark and desolate world, two figures walked across its red sand plateaus, and between crumbling ruins of a once mighty empire. Now only ancient tombs, monuments, statues, each echoing silence, evil, and death surrounded them. The two individuals were an odd paring to say the least. One of them stood at 6’5” was heavily armed with a blaster rifle on his back, 3 pistols distributed on hips/leg, and a large vibrosword handle coming out of a panel on his back. The figure was completely robotic, made out of an intimidating and battle weathered red metal with complementing glowing red eyes, that constantly scanned their surroundings. The other man was no were less frightening to the average viewer. While only standing at 5’11” they were probably the more intimidating of the two, clad in long dark robes that ended in a hood obscuring his face, which was further hidden by a black and red mask that possessed an almost demonic quality to it. Under the rest of the robes was a heavy looking set of red and silver Mandalorian-hybrid battle armor, hidden with all kinds of technical add-ons/weapons, accompanied with the more obvious weapons of two lightsabers hanging off of his belt. As the duo continued their walk across the silent and dead wasteland, the droid finally broke the heavy silence.

“Query: Master, how much longer are we going to be sneaking around here like common scavengers? The sith armies have been completely removed from the planet and the Republic is in the process of building a new space station in orbit.”

The cloaked man finally stopped and stood before a large tomb, its ancient statues, glyphs, and red sand-stone looked down on the two figures, and while the droid could not feel it, Revan could sense the dark-side calling out to him from every direction, but became concentrated at this particular tomb. Revan reached out a gloved hand and slowly felt the almost-familiar stone, running his fingers carefully across the sith glyphs and writings, a dead language decorating a dead place. Revan finally turned and faced HK-47, who had been examining Revan’s movements with slight curiosity, when he wasn’t sweeping their surroundings visually and by scanner.

“We are not hiding from the sith my old friend.” Revan’s voice came across automated and distorted, a default setting he had left on his mask and couldn’t be bothered to consistently switch on and off. “I simply do not want to attract any unwanted attention. The Republic and Jedi still do not trust me, even after all I have done for those ungrateful sods, and me, of all people, coming back to Korriban dressed in my old attire, which we recently stole from the Republic, would cause quite a few concerned reactions.” Revan finished his explanation before going back to examining the massive stone doors before him.

“Advisement: Then perhaps we should conclude our business quickly and leave this place. Unless there is an opportunity to kill some bothersome Republic meat-bags, then I would be quite happy to stay as long as you like master.”

A slight smile crept on to Revan’s face under his mask, before he shook his head and responded without turning around, “No HK, we are not here to fight anyone, at least, you aren’t.” The assassin droid turned his head to examine its master. Feeling the implied question Revan answered, “I’m going away HK, probably to my death if we’re going to be perfectly honest and before you insist, no, you cannot follow me, even if I would enjoy your company and the extra gun covering my back.” The ruins and tombs of Korriban may have fooled the rest of the galaxy into thinking death was the final legacy of the sith, and their threat had been altogether removed from the galaxy, Revan knew better. HK said nothing and simply watched Revan work, calculating something in his metallic mind, whatever it was Revan did not know, so he continued to speak into the silence around them.

“I want you to take the ship and go back to Bastila, she is your new master now.” Revan turned to stare directly into his loyal assassin’s eyes, “You will do whatever it takes to keep her safe, I do not care if it costs you everything to do so, nothing happens to her. Do I make myself clear?” Internally HK was surprised with the harshness of his master’s order, but his synthetic exterior revealed nothing. If the droid could feel emotion, Revan’s words brought him to a place of ‘hurt’ or ‘abandonment’ if he could even approximate what that feeling might be. After several moments of silence HK slowly nodded and said, “Acknowledgement: I understand master. I will follow your directions to my last nanosecond of operation, no matter the cost.”

Under his mask Revan shifted between HK’s two glowing red eyes, instinctually looking for some kind of assurance or tell, knowing subconsciously there would not be any to be found. Finally, Revan nodded back, before turning again to the doors in front of him. “Oh, and do treat her like your new master. For the love of anything do not give her any grief or back-talk, she’ll be mad enough at me once she finds out what I’ve done.” HK did not respond, but Revan knew the droid would cling to his every word, he had built him with that same reliability he had counted on for so many years.

“Query: And what of the others master, what shall I tell them?” Revan stopped his work and looked down at the sandy floor beneath his feet. A flood of emotions, memories, good and bad flooded through his mind at once before he was able to fully swallow them down and breath again. “I have already left detailed instructions for the rest of them, but, if they do decide to ask you, tell them…I went where my dreams took me.” After a few moments of silence between the two Revan looked slightly over his shoulder, “You can go now HK.” HK waited slightly longer than he knew he should, but eventually the tall droid began to make its way back to the ship. Just before HK could disappear from view Revan turned and called out, “Oh, and HK!” The assassin turned and looked at his master surprised and possibly hopeful. “…Take care of my ship.” HK simply looked at Revan for a few moments then nodded before turning and disappearing from sight.

Revan felt a slight ting of sadness wash over him, knowing that was probably the last time he would ever see a friendly face. He turned back to the door and clenched his fists willing new determination in his spirit before waving a hand in front of three specific runes. The symbols slid back into the wall, loud noises of gears, mechanisms, and contraptions began to creak and groan as they moved for the first time in perhaps a millennium. Finally, the mechanism finished its long sequence and the ancient stone doors broke their tension from each other and slowly opened inwardly to the dark tomb, letting a rush of dust and stale air wash out of the tomb. Revan thanked his past-self mentally for the air-filters in his mask.

He slowly entered he dark structure before him as the sun began to set behind him, casting an eerie orange glow that barely penetrated the room before him. Revan pulled out a blue lightsaber and cautiously walked forward, igniting it as he did so, casting a fait blue glow on the sith halls around him. Making his way deeper into the tomb he heard the sound of terentatek begging to stir deeper in the tomb, but instead of moving down the obvious path before him, Revan stopped in the middle of a hallway and turned to face one of the walls. Slowly sliding his hand over the sith glyps and writings he found one he was looking for and sent a spark of force lightning into it. The wall made a hiss as a secret door slowly slid back into the wall and then to the side, revealing a cramped and more ancient tunnel. Revan had to duck slightly as he made his way through the new tunnel, only slightly glancing behind him as the wall closed back into place. After walking for less than a minute he came to a corner, which he rounded, and then he could finally see it. At the end of the passage was a room, no more than 10 feet long in all directions. In each of the four corners stood statues, and all around the room were hieroglyphs, carvings, pictures, and writings; however the room as so ancient that almost everything in the room had become dust, even the walls; and nothing was recognizable. In the middle of the room as a small pyramid with its top flattened, standing at about 5 feet tall, hovering with a slight spin just above the pyramid was a purple crystal, dimly pulsing with a purple glow.

Revan entered the room and turned off his lightsaber. As he approached the crystal it began to glow brighter, and something dark began to call to him, its sounds could almost be heard whispering around the room itself. Revan had seen this crystal before. It had called to him once, right before he became Darth Revan. It had offered a solution, a different way to defeat the true sith and save the galaxy and the republic, however he was younger then, more prideful and arrogant, confident his vision for the galaxy could be achieved through swift military might. Almost immediately after He had killed his former apprentice and friend, part of his old memories came flooding back to him. It almost broke his mind again, if She had not been there to help him. Over the next two years she had helped him as more and more memories slowly came back, as his mind began to heal itself fully. Then, a few nights ago, a vision, this memory, this crystal, appeared to him along with his original mission and purpose, why he had become Darth Revan, and what he had to stop before it ever came back to the galaxy.

He pondered for a moment what would have happened if he had gone down this path instead of the one he choose, but such thoughts were ultimately pointless. Shaking the rambling questions running through his mind Revan did one last careful check of his equipment, armor, and weapons. Satisfied that he was as prepared as he could be for what would happen, he slowly reached out towards the crystal. The purple object began to spin and glow faster and faster as his hand approached it, the voices in the room becoming louder as well. Just before he grasped it Revan spoke, “Take me to the Lord of the sith.” Once his hand grabbed the crystal, purple lighting began to shoot out of it into the room. The crystal burned in Revan’s hand as he forced it to stop moving and he felt like all the bones in his body were going to snap as energy coursed through his arm and into his entire frame. He let out a cry of pain as light and smoke filled the room. When the light cleared Revan was gone and the room stood empty and quiet once more.


	2. Chapter 1 - Should I Come Back Later?

Chapter 1 – Should I Come Back Later?

It was close to noon on a bright sunny day on the city-planet of Coruscant. Chancellor Palpatine was sitting behind his desk listening to a group of people he secretly despised. In the room with him were four Jedi, two of whom were the well known and respected Master Yoda and Master Windu, accompanied by masters Saesee Tiin and Plo-Koon. Aside from them were several senators and political dignitaries, the most infuriating of whom was one Senator Padmé Amidala, who had called this meeting to discuss the current bill being proposed to secure additional funding for the purchasing of more clone troopers. The Jedi masters had arrived, unannounced of course, for their own meeting, but had decided to stay and add to the discussion at hand, much to the further irritation of the chancellor. Still, he had to admit, everything was going just fine from where he was sitting. He knew the bill would pass, eventually, and the war would continue on its way just as he had planned. He was almost tempted to zone out and let the room ramble amongst themselves when suddenly.

The chancellor had to grip his seat to keep himself from not reacting, but internally his mind was racing, and his body was screaming at him to get ready for a fight. Something had happened in the Force, almost like a nuclear-sized explosion had ruptured in the Force sending shock waves in all directions. Several moments after Palpatine had sensed it the four jedi masters froze, each experiencing the same event, each trying to pull themselves together and figure out what had just happened. The politicians in the room only had a second to see that something was visibly wrong on the Jedi's faces before Windu jumped up and yelled: "Cover!"

The security team, which had been standing in the back of the office, sprang into action at the order, running to grab the civilians, while the jedi dove and pushed everyone away from the center of the room. No one would later recall that Palpatine had already decided to duck under his desk before Windu had spoken.

A sudden and violent explosion spontaneously ruptured in the middle of the room, sending black smoke bellowing out in all directions, and blasting anyone back who wasn't fortunate enough to get down in time. Senate guards on the landing strip below the chancellor's office looked up as shattered glass rained down on them, and smoke began to pour out of the office. Alarms quickly went off and the guards began rushing to their posts in response. Surprisingly the explosion itself was relatively small, and the actual damage it did to the room and its occupants was minimal, seriously wounding no one.

As the civilians and Jedi in the room began to get themselves up, occasionally coughing from the smoke that had not quite cleared, they all looked to the center of the room in confusion, fear, and anticipation. The greatest concentration of smoke still lingered where the explosion had originated from, and it randomly crackled with small bolts of purple lighting. As the smoke slowly dissipated a figure could be seen on one knee, kneeling, then slowly rising. As the figure came into view several politicians gasped and one screamed, as the almost demonic black, red, and silver figure began to scan the room behind their intimidating mask.

Palpatine, who was doing his best to play the role of a shell-shocked old man, slowly peeked from over his desk to observe the figure standing before him. He did not recognize a single thing about the individual, except for quickly noticing the two light sabers that were attached to his belt, which caused more concern for Palpatine. What made the chancellor the most worried however, was how he could not even sense the individual in front of him, it was like they were not even present in the Force, aside from the faintest indication. What was more troubling was that the force was screaming at him from all directions, almost like a wounded animal who had just been stabbed in the side. Whatever event had just transpired that brought this figure before him, it was not supposed to have ever happened, that much Palpatine was sure of.

The chancellor's internal thoughts were cut off by Windu and the other jedi stepping towards the intruder igniting their sabers as they did so. "By order of the Galactic Republic, you are under arrest." Windu stated with great seriousness and the force of someone who is used to giving orders that are followed. "Surrender, you are surrounded." To add on to his point several senate guards finally arrived, coming through the single door opposite the window, aiming their weapons directly at Revan, and blocking the exit.

Revan, for his part, was annoyed, bust mostly lost. He was obviously on a republic city world, probably Coruscant with his luck, and had just bombed some kind of important political or military meeting. Not a great start to his journey. What made matters worse was that he was now about to be attacked by several skilled and powerful Jedi, though he did note that they did not feel as powerful in the Force as those he was used to fighting. He had been examining the room and occupants for as long as he could, avoiding any sudden movements to try and give himself more time to make a plan and gather himself together. Unfortunately, it seemed he was out of time. Revan had been slightly surprised by the power behind the jedi's words, and had almost just done what he said, but now he knew, there was only one way out of this. But maybe he could stall just a little bit longer to give himself more time to think.

"I'm terribly sorry about all this." Revan finally broke his silence for the first time as he carefully gestured to the damage around him. His voice obviously being modified by the mask he wore. Everyone looked visibly surprised by this first comment, which Revan quickly followed up with an even more baffling one: "Is this a bad time? Should I come back later?"

Senator Padmé would have laughed at Revan's joke if she wasn't equal parts curious, confused, and terrified of the situation she was in. The blast had knocked her further towards the chancellor and window, and away from the door. Her head of security had begun to silently gesture for her to start making her way towards him and the other senate guards, but she had ignored him and instead was trying to examine the man before her as much as she could. Carefully trying to memorize anything of note on his person that would help her investigation later. She finally saw something, a symbol, barely visible on Revan's left gauntlet, it seemed to have been inscribed with a knife by hand, and only after he had gestured to the wreckage around him, and the sun had caught his armor, had she managed to see it. Her observations were interrupted when Windu spoke again, taking another step towards the intruder. "I won't ask again. Surrender. Now."

Revan let out a sigh and made his decision. He mumbled, mostly to himself, and only loud enough that Windu was the only one who could hear him, "No, I don't suspect you will." Windu narrowed his eyes at Revan before realizing just a moment too late what his intentions were, as he sliced his saber through nothing but air.

Palpatine finally got his answer for why he almost couldn't sense the man in front of him. Suddenly, Revan force-dashed directly at senator Padmaé. The moment he did so there could be no mistake, he had been masking his presence in the Force, not quite to the extent that Palpatine had learned to do so from his master, but almost to the same level. Before the chancellor had time to consider this further Revan had already grabbed the senator in a choke-hold, put her between himself and the rest of the room, and was now standing on the very edge of the shattered window, the wind whipping his robes wildly behind him. The jedi moved forward but stopped several paces back. The other politicians were quickly taken out of the room by the security, who moved up behind the jedi. "Get out of here." Windu barked at Palapatine who had managed to scrambling around to the other side of his desk. The chancellor held back a glare at the Jedi master for barking orders at him, but did slowly make his way back towards the door, trying his best to stay and observe what was going to happen, perhaps Padmé would finally be removed for him.

Revan quickly moved his gaze between each of the Jedi, knowing he now had much more control of the situation, but only just. Padmé could feel the wind pull at her from being this high up and found herself clinging to Revan instinctively for fear of begin dropped out the window. Was this the end for her? She hated this attacker for what now seemed to be another assassination attempt.

Master Plo stepped forward slightly and spoke much more calmly diplomatically than Windu had done, "Let us not be hasty about this. Give us the senator and we promise no harm shall befall you."

Revan's red and black mask turned and looked directly at master Plo, its gaze causing a slight amount of intimidation, but not enough to show itself. Revan smiled under his mask before answering. "I believe you master Jedi. But I'm afraid, my ride is here." The jedi tried to force grip the two individuals but were met with a massive invisible blast that sent them all sliding back, forcing them to brace themselves instead, and sending the guards behind them all flying into the wall. With the few seconds he gained himself, Revan gripped the senator tighter and leapt a spectacular distance directly backwards in a wide flip, landing with a loud thud on the top of cargo container that was being pulled along by a flying speeder.

Padmé had closed her eyes for the entire flight that had felt like an eternity, once she felt they had stopped moving, she instantly began to struggle to get free, hoping the landing had caused her kidnapper to loosen his grip. Unfortunately for her, Revan had anticipated this, and kept her from succeeding. He then spoke softly and almost kindly, into her ear, which caused her to stop fighting mostly out of surprise. "I'm terribly sorry about this my dear." Revan spoke without a voice modifier, and in a genuinely apologetic tone, before waving his hand in front of Padmé's face, causing her to pass out. Revan then carefully laid her on her side before slumping back with a heavy sigh, looking up to examine the Senate office, which was quickly disappearing from view.

* * *

The four Jedi stood on the window ledge, watching the faint black figure disappear in the sea of speeders. Windu had wanted to leap onto another speeder and follow them, but even he wasn't sure he could make that jump, and Yoda had advised him to not recklessly give chase. Oddly enough the four Jedi had agreed that they had felt nothing in the force to indicate to them that Padmé was in any actual danger. But telling this to Padmé's security officer had not stopped him from shouting to the senate guards in a panic to go after her.

Palpatine finally re-entered the room under heavy escort. "So, master Jedis, what has become of the situation?"

"The intruder escaped." Windu stated shortly, obviously irritated. "But we'll find him, and the senator. We have already sent word to the Jedi temple, and several teams are being assembled and dispatched in coordination with the Coruscant’s local security."

"Very good, very good." Responded Palpatine. "I have every confidence that under your care master Jedis, this terrorist will be brought to justice, and the matter will be closed. Now, if you will all excuse me, I have several matters that require my full attention." As the chancellor turned to leave, he was stopped.

"Wise to be alone for you chancellor, it is not." Yoda spoke up.

"Well now, I don't think they're anything-" but Palpatine was cut off by master Plo "I agree with master Yoda. We do not know if this attacker was working alone, they're could be others, and if they are also Force users, the chancellor will need Jedi protectors."

"Well I don't think-" But Windu cut off Palpatine again. "Then it is settled. Until this matter is sufficiently resolved, Master Plo and I will stay with the chancellor at all times today." Palpatine hated this arrangement, but knew he was not going to convince them out of it. "Very well, if that is what you think is best."

"We do." Yoda answred, before turning to Windu and Plo, "Master Tin and I, return to the temple, we will. From their, coordinate the search, I will." The Jedi all nodded in agreement and the group began to leave the room. Master Yoda turned one last time to scan the room and look out the broken window. Troubling times these were, and the storm that had suddenly appeared over the horizon, he felt was just beginning.


	3. Chapter 2 - The Right Man In The Wrong Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone and thank you for generously taking some time out of your day to read my story. In the two days this has been posted I have received over 100 views, several likes, and several subscriptions. I did not expect these kind of numbers this quickly so thank you all for reading this story, it means a lot!
> 
> I have yet to receive any kind of feedback, so please send me your thoughts, ideas, critics, and any comments. All feedback is welcome!
> 
> Anyway, here is the next chapter in the story and I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 2 – The Right Man in the Wrong Place

An office door made a hiss as it quickly slid open. A pair of Jedi walked into what had previously been Chancellor Palpatine's office, but now looked more like a cross between a murder scene investigation, and a small arm's test detonation. Furniture was scattered in every direction, the chancellor's desk was broken into pieces some of which were embedded in the wall, and the middle of the room had the remains of an obviously blast. The charred burnt ground had been scorched in an almost perfect circle, directly above it the ceiling was also blackened with the smoke that had come off the explosion and left a trail out the window.

"Looks like someone had an eventful start to their day." Master Obi-Wan Kenobi spoke to no one in particular, causing Masters Plo Koon and Mace Windu to turn and nod to the two new arrivals. "Anakin, Obi-Wan, glad you could finally join us." Master Windu said in half jest and half seriousness, obviously itching to get down to business.

"What's the situation masters?" Anakin spoke as he made his way towards the back of the room where Mace and Plo had been conversing with a clone officer.

"I can answer that for you sirs." The clone officer spoke up. "I've just received a report from one of our search teams."

"Go ahead commander Wolffe." Plo spoke the group's verbal permission.

The clone nodded before continuing. "We've just finished our complete sweep and lockdown of the entire senate building. There are no unidentified persons in the building and no missing civilians who had already checked in for the day."

"What about senator Amidala?" Anakin interrupted Wolffe before he could continue, drawing a small glance from Kenobi.

"She's safe sir." Wolffe answered without missing a beat. "Local authorities had immediately been dispatched to go after her after the incident. Then they came across the speeder the attacker had used to escape. It had parked only a few blocks west of here. She was still on the roof unconscious, our medical teams checked on her showing only minor injuries she suffered from the blast. They tried to take her to a hospital, but she refused and had the team take her back to her apartment. Her security chief is with her now."

Kenobi chuckled at the end of the clone's report. "That does sound like Padmé."

"And what of the driver? Have they been taken into custody?" Mace asked as a follow-up, ignoring Kenobi's comment.

"Yes sir." Wolffe responded. "But upon questioning him he said he has no memory of why he even parked and when local security looked his identification up on criminal records it came up completely clean. The officers think he might have just been an unlucky civilian at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Windu nodded in understanding, "Tell them to keep the driver in holding for now. We don't want to let go a possible lead."

"Understood sir." Wolffe acknowledged quickly.

"What is being done to search for the perpetrator?" Plo asked.

"We’ve got several teams sweeping the entire Federal District. We've also begun to set up check points around that perimeter and we are having all local traffic either grounded or pass through a check point. Additionally, all ships leaving the planet must be searched before they are clear to leave, the navy in orbit is handling that." Wolffe answered the inquiry. "We also have started posting security footage of the attack to the local HoloNet, encouraging civilians to call in with any sightings, and a bounty is being approved as we speak for any information or confirmed sightings. It may take some time sirs, but we'll find him." Wolffe finished his report with confidence.

"Thank you, commander." Kenobi said, "We will call you over if we have more questions."

"Sirs." Wolffe saluted before moving to speak with a scanning team that had just entered the room.

The four Jedi looked at each other with some skepticism. While the local authorities and the clones had acted fast, Coruscant was a big place. The attacker could already be far outside the district for all they knew. "Do we have any other leads?"

Windu shook his head to answer Anakin's question. "None right now, but what is certain is that we should be ready for anything. If this was some kind of attack by the separatists, there may be more trouble ahead."

"I don't feel like this was the Separatists." Kenobi offered as a counter point to Windu's advised caution. "This, intruder, shall we say, landed in a target rich environment and didn't kill a single person. I mean the explosion itself didn't even cause any major injuries; I feel like we are dealing with a third party."

"I sense you are right Obi-Wan," Plo spoke, "But even so, we must remain vigilant. Whoever this individual was he is still at large. We can conjecture about these events at length after the matter at hand has been settled."

"I'll track him down, find him, and make sure we put an end to this." Anakin spoke with a slight air of anger in his voice.

"Don't be hasty Skywalker." Windu objected, "This attacker is powerful in the Force, until we know more about him, we should have all Jedi stay in pairs of two and call in any sightings immediately to the temple. Master Yoda is there now coordinating the other Jedi. Master Plo and I are going to stay here and watch the chancellor, and the senators."

"That sounds like a wise plan." Kenobi complimented Windu. "Anakin and I will search the area around the Senate Building where our masked friend was last seen, we'll contact you if anything turns up."

"Good luck." Plo said, "And may the Force be with you."

The two Jedi turned to walk out of the room. Once they were through the door Anakin spoke. "I'll meet you at the hanger master, I need to check on something real quick."

Kenobi turned to look at his apprentice, raising an eyebrow slightly. "Alright." He said deciding not to press the matter. "But don't be long, this investigation is pressing."

"I know master, I'll be right behind you." Anakin said reassuringly. Kenobi nodded and walked off. Once he was out of sight Anakin ducted into an empty hallway. Quickly checking to make sure no one was around he pulled out his holo-communicator and activated it. A moment or two passed before Padmé appeared in his hand. He was relieved to see her and that she only had a few small bandages on her forehead and hands. "Padmé! Oh, I'm glad to see you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Anakin." Padmé said with a smile, "But thank you for the concern. I am a little annoyed as my security refuses to let me come back to the senate building. Can you believe they almost dragged to a hospital for these tiny cuts?" She said in obvious aggravation.

Anakin smiled and laughed slightly at her. "Even a terrorist bombing and being taken hostage can't keep you down."

"Enough about me. Padmé quickly waved his comment off with her hand. "How's the investigation? Is everyone else okay?"

"Everyone else is fine." Anakin assured her. "No one suffered any injuries worse than yours, but the bomber is still out there. Obi-Wan and I are about to go out looking for him now."

"Okay. That's good to hear, please be safe out there Anakin. I've never seen four Jedi masters get out played like that before." Padmé said with hint of worry. "Also, let me know if there's anything I can do to help with the investigation."

"Don't worry about me." Anakin said, "You need to rest and lay low until this guy is taken care of. And I promise, I'll find the guy who had the nerve to use you as a hostage, the low life." Anakin clenched his other fist slightly as he said it.

"I'm sure you will Anakin." Padmé responded. "Now you should go, I'm sure Obi-Wan is waiting for you."

Anakin nodded as an answer. "I love you." "I love you too." Padmé responded with a smile.

Anakin hung up the call, then quickly moved towards the hanger.

* * *

Revan landed with a small thud in a dark alley. He looked up at the few streets he had managed to jump down from, point to point, after getting off of the container. As a courtesy to whatever politician he had no doubt scared to death, Revan had mind-tricked the speeder driver into carefully stopping a good distance away from Revan's dropping off point and calling the local authorities immediately. This was half a small apology to the woman, but it would also serve as a decoy for the Jedi to start their search somewhat far from where he actually was, hopefully giving himself enough of a lead. Revan shook his head at that thought. Already all around him different signs, news bulletins, and display boards had slightly blurry footage of him, informing the population to come forward with any information or sightings they had of this "...yet unidentified terrorist." Revan huffed at the description. "’Terrorist.’ I didn't even kill anyone...though I may have blow up a major government building, but that's beside the point, it was an accident!”

Revan sighed and leaned against the wall, there was no point dwelling on that. He quickly took a moment to check his gear, and make sure that nothing had broken in his little trip, cursing his past self for ever thinking he could possibly trust an ancient Sith crystal for anything. Looking around at his surroundings he began to make observations. This was definitely Coruscant the signs everywhere confirmed it, but it looked...off? Things were different, out of place, taller? If that was even possible, but still, the feeling lingered. This was not the Coruscant he knew.

He began to notice other things, the technology was different, the clothing too, especially, and then, he examined the date below one of the large announcement monitors. ‘968 PRR.’ PRR? What the hell was that! Revan rubbed the front of his mask, groaning to himself. “Oh, what have I gotten myself into now?” He mentally asked his own mind He began to pace slightly with his hands behind his back, talking to himself:

“Alright, focus. What are we dealing with? Coruscant. Still under Republic control?" He took a moment to glance at the symbols and environment around him. "Yes. Jedi still prominent here? Obviously." He said with clear irritation. "How good are the local authorities at catching criminals? Judging by how long it is taking them in a city full of cameras, not very. So, I thankfully have some time. Now! Where are we? Well, ancient Sith crystal dating back Force knows how long, using alchemy, what are the most likely outcomes? Illusion?" He took a moment to crush a discarded soda can with his foot, he then gave it a few twists and kicks, he wobbled his head back and forth before continuing, "...Possible. Dream? Same thing. Pocket dimension?" At this point Revan heard some aliens walking by and made sure to cling to the wall waiting for them to pass. "...Not likely. Alternate dimension? Very possible. Mind prison? Force control? Hypnotism?" Revan found he had begun to pace faster and faster, getting more and more agitated as his mind raced in circles. Suddenly, he turned and punched the wall behind him with a loud crack.

Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and his mind. Slowly moving his fist off the wall, he saw the sizable impact he had created in the concrete, he flexed his hand slightly to make sure nothing was broken.

"This isn't helping. I need answers, not theories, I need a place to gather myself, to make a plan to..." Revan stopped himself as he finally looked down the opposite end of the alley and slowly began to laugh to himself quietly. "...I can't be serious...There’s no way even I would be dumb enough to do that..." Revan shook his head, chuckled, then let out a large sigh. "Well! This should be interesting."

With his personal conversation finally done, Revan began to move, looking around carefully and cautiously as he did so, and with a purpose in mind, Revan started to make his way towards the Jedi Temple.

* * *

Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee walked around the Jedi Temple Archives. The pair of padawan had been assigned to help Master Jocasta Nu with some organization projects. This assignment had been given as a small punishment for failing to follow orders during a previous battle and was meant to teach them the importance of patience; that a clear mind that did not get caught up in the moment.

What it was currently teaching them was that the Jedi archives were a confusing maze of information, data entries, long forgotten knowledge, and a horribly outdated filing system that no-one had thought prudent to update since around 200 years ago.

"Uhg! I hate this assignment." Ahsoka finally broke the silence between the two of them. Barriss nodded and turned from her work in front of one of the many digital cases. "I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling like this is some sadistic form of torture. There are entries here that are over 100 years old and they've never been properly categorized." Ahsoka finally slumped down to the floor, tossing her data pad to the ground in front of her. "I think the most frustrating thing is the hypocrisy of this whole thing. The jedi knights and masters choose reckless strategies and disobey orders all the time, and we learn from them! But then, when we padawans do something similar, we get disciplined simply because we don't have high enough rank to fight it."

Barriss nodded and looked down at her data pad with a sigh. "It must be particularly frustrating for you. I can't imagine all the rules Skywalker teaches you to break. He's infamous for disobeying orders."

"I know!" Ahsoka exclaimed in agreement. "But for whatever reason, he pretty much always gets a free pass from the council, like he's their chosen poster child or something." Ahsoka let out an aggravated grown and buried her head in her crossed arms. "Look, I know this discipline is pretty mild, and we got off easy, and I am very grateful for all the things master Skywalker has taught me, but I just don't understand the inconsistencies. It's frustrating."

Barriss looked down at Ahsoka, and then slowly rubbed the back of her neck. "It's true. I feel like the council tells us one thing and then does something completely different." Barriss' gaze began to slowly shift around the archives. "It almost makes you want to just..." Barriss looked like she was on the verge of saying something but was struggling to let it out.

Noticing the silence Ahsoka finally looked up at Barriss and saw the obvious conflict on her face. "Uh...hey Barriss? Are you okay?" Barriss shook her head and looked at Ahsoka, obviously pulling herself out of some kind of mental headspace.

"Oh, what? Sorry. Must have drifted off there." Barriss spoke with a district lack of confidence. Ahsoka looked confused and slightly worried at her padawan friend, but before she could press further they both heard the distinct tapping of shoes on tile approaching them. Both of their heads snapped towards the familiar sound and Ahsoka quickly stood up and force pulled her data pad to her just in time as Jocasta Nu rounded the corner.

“Ah! There you are my children.” The elderly Jedi said with a hint of relief in her voice, but obvious worry was also carried in her tone. "I'm glad I found you." She finished before closing the distance between the two.

Ahsoka and Barriss both glanced at each other before looking at Jocasta. "Is there something we can help you with master?" Barriss offered first. "We were just about to finish this secti-" But Ahsoka was cut off before she could finish.

"Oh, do not worry about that my dears. I'm sure you're doing excellent work. I came to tell both of you that the Senate Building has just been attacked.

"Attacked?" Ahsoka asked with extreme concern. She instantly thought of Padmé and other senators that she new who would have been working today. "Do we have any details? Was anyone hurt?" Barriss continued Ahsoka's line of questioning.

"I'm afraid I don't have much information for you, but the temple is on high alert until the terrorist is caught."

"You mean whoever attacked the senate got away?" Ahsoka said with slight anger and surprise.

"I am afraid they are still at large. But rest assured my young padawans, several Jedi Masters are on the scene and the situation will be handled in no time. I will inform you of anymore updates but for now, continue on your work and do not worry. Now if you will excuse me, I must attend to other matters." Before the concerned pupils could press for any more information Jocasta quickly made her exit back the way she came.

Barriss and Ahsoka turned to look at each other, both visibly shaken that a terrorist had not only managed to strike at the heart of Coruscant but was still roaming the city at this very moment. They stood in silence for several seconds when suddenly Ahsoka grabbed the side of her head and slumped against the self behind them, groaning in paid as she did so. Barriss reacted just fast enough to stop Ahsoka from falling and gently helped her to a sitting position. "Ahsoka are you alright?" Barriss asked, trying to keep herself from panicking.

Ahsoka's mind was filled with whispers of voices and visions that came in flashes of half or distorted images. Her head was pounding in agony for a few moments then it finally left her. She rubbed her forehead a few times then opened her eyes to see Barriss looking at her with great concern. "Barriss? What happened?"

"You almost collapsed." Barriss answered, "I caught you just in time. What happened to you."

Ahsoka stared past the floor for a moment before answering, "I...I don't know, it was almost like I had a...premonition. I can't explain why but, I think the Jedi Temple is going to be attacked."

Barriss' eyes grew wide with shock. "Do you think we should inform the council?" Ahsoka thought about it then shook her head and responded, "No. They have their hands full, and they may just think we're trying to get out of our archiving duty. Plus, I trust that if the Force is giving me a vision of an attack on the temple, I'm sure the Jedi council will feel the same thing coming towards them.


	4. Chapter 3 - If A System Does Not Appear In Our Records...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone and thank you all for taking some time to read my latest chapter! I just want to say I have very thankful for how much support and feedback I have already received from you guys, I was simply not expecting this much attention or support this quickly! I also want to shout out everyone who has been messaging me, leaving comments, reviews, questions, and ideas, all feedback is welcome and it's a great motivator! As long as you guys are happy with what I am writing then I will keep doing it!  
> One last note: For those of you who have read "The Trouble With Crystals" this is the main turning point in our story, where the original narrative goes one way, and our tale goes another. I would love to hear what you guys think about this and if you are excited for the new direction we are taking! Or, if you haven't read TTWC, then are you curious about what will happen next? Anyway guys and gals, here is chapter 3 and I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 3 - If A System Does Not Appear In Our Records...

Revan had never really taken the time to properly look at the Jedi temple from the outside. Now, as he crouched on the edge of a roof about a quarter of a mile from the border of the temple grounds, he realized something he had never truly appreciated: the temple was terribly dull looking. One massive block with 5 tall pillars sticking out of it. To be fair, the Jedi had never been the extremely...imaginative or creative type. The corner of Revan's mouth turned up slightly at the personal joke, but quickly disappeared as his mind began to work on a strategy for getting in and then out of the temple. As he looked over the portion of the temple he could see, he tapped the side of his mask which slowly began to pull up a now 4,000 year old blueprint of the temple, which he lined up with the section he was observing to further understand what his options were. Revan took a second to thank his past life for planning for the eventual invasion of Coruscant and having the foresight to know that the temple would be one of the most important fights to win.

As Revan scanned over the information laid out in front of him, he understood that the schematics were most likely wrong. Whatever strange parallel universe the crystal possibly transported him to was very similar, but not the same, and Revan expected the temple to be no different.

Giving his mind several minutes to look for the best route, he began crossing off possible options due to either the unreliability of the map he had or because the temple was no doubt on high-alter and would be monitoring things like air vents or sewer lines; not to mention the myriad of security measures the temple he knew was full of.

Finally, a thought entered Revan's mind. He chuckled slightly and shook his head as he checked and double checked his other options. "Well, if today is the day of stupid ideas, might as well go all out." Tapping the side of his mask again to remove the overlay Revan stood and began to make a few precautionary stretches. He then scanned the sparse traffic that was moving in front of him. The traffic in the entire district Revan had been moving through was slowly dying down, an observation that was not lost on Revan.

After a minute or two of scanning Revan spotted a larger transport that would work perfectly for his purposes. Revan turned and walked quickly to the opposite end of the roof, then spun back around and cracked his neck; taking a few deep breaths to focus himself. Once the transport was in the right position Revan began to run towards the edge of the roof. With his last step on the edge of building, Revan unleashed a massive Force jump that propelled himself forward. He sailed through the air for several seconds, his body acting on instinct to adjust itself for the fast landing. Revan hit the transport and used the momentum to go into a role and immediately broke into a new run across the vehicle, only having less than 10 seconds to find his next target. Spotting it, Revan picked up his speed and launched himself in the same fashion as before. This next speeder was much smaller than the cargo vessel he had just jumped from, so instead of a roll Revan braced himself for a hard landing, reinforcing his body with the Force to take the majority of the impact.

Revan's heavy frame smashed like a boulder onto the top of the speeder, sending it spiraling off course. Revan let out a quite curse as he realized he had overestimated the power of this personal craft. Seeing the cockpit below him and the panicking alien within, Revan reached out with the Force and grabbed the controls, forcing the speeder to steady and get back to the correct altitude. Once the speeder had been steadied, and the Rodian had been quickly calmed with a simple mind trick, Revan turned back to his current target.

The speeder going off course had completely botched Revan's previous steppingstones and now, there was nothing between him and the temple grounds but a massive drop. Revan quickly looked around for another solution, but knew he had none. Revan moved into a crouched position, like an animal ready to pounce, and placed both of his hands on the roof of the speeder.

He could feel the force swirling around him, bending to his call easily and intensely. Once the energy was fully charged, the intensity was so great that the metal under Revan’s boots and gloved fingers began to bend and indent. Saying a small Mandalorian prayer under his breath, Revan unleashed his force jump with a massive blast that catapulted the speeder downward about 20 feet in under 3 seconds. Revan, meanwhile, was catapulted almost 100 feet into the air. The wind whistled around him, and then slowly died down as his arch reached its peak, and then picked up again as he began to hurtle back down towards the temple grounds. Bracing himself for a very hard landing, Revan gathered the Force around himself and pulled his body into a ball, knowing no roll or stance was going to help with a fall from this height.

Revan hurtled down onto the grounds and smashed into one of the several green hedges that lined edge of the perimeter. The hedge exploded from the force of Revan's crash and Revan laid in the grass for several moments, breathing heavily and letting out a groan from the pain he was experiencing. Slowly patting himself under his armor, Revan examined his body for any breaks, whispering a small thanks when he discovered none. Pulling himself up from the ground he winced and grabbed his side, while he may not have broken anything, he had definitely bruised several things, and maybe fractured a rib or two.

Shrugging the pain off and making a mental note to take some time to heal after he was done with the temple, Revan quietly moved through the greenery around him. Thankfully for Revan, the hedge he had destroyed was behind several layers of trees and other foliage, meaning his impact had been hidden from any guards or security cameras.

Revan peeked through the last level of greenery and examined one of the main entrances to the temple. He frowned as he observed 2 temple guards standing at attention at the door, checking the few individuals that were entering. The doors were also sealed shut until one of the guards used the force on a console behind him, which opened an auxiliary door large enough for maybe two people shoulder-to-shoulder to enter in, leaving the massive main temple doors closed. 

Revan knelt, pondering his options, when suddenly, a ship landed on a platform not too far to Revan's right. Some humans quickly got out of the vehicle and made their way towards the entrance. A smile crossed Revan's features under his mask. He reached down and tapped a small device on the side of his belt.

The group of humans were stopped by the guards and obviously searched and examined before being let in. As one of the guards stepped aside to let the group in, he stopped and looked intently at them.

"Is something wrong?" One of them asked. The guard said nothing for a few seconds then finally spoke. "No... You’re free to go in." The guard could have sworn he saw some kind of shimmer in the air behind one of the humans, but upon further examination there was nothing there. Shaking his head, he chalked it up to nerves and a stressful day with the high security alert.

Revan let out a small breath of relief once the door had closed behind him. His stealth field generator had managed to work perfectly in getting into the temple, though there was a close call with one of the guards, but now, he was in. Looking around he instantly began to recognize the temple's interior. In fact, he was slightly surprised with how the temple seemed to be exactly like the one he remembered. 'Perhaps things are not as different as I first imagined' Revan thought to himself, but he knew he would have time for contemplation later. Making sure to avoid moving too quickly or too close to any of the individuals or droids making their way around the grand hall of the temple, Revan began moving towards his target.

* * *

Anakin was frustrated. The feeling had started when he first heard the news about the bombing of the senate building and it had slowly grown throughout the day. Now, as Obi-Wan finished what seemed like his 100th identical conversation with another random local, Anakin was about ready to punch something.

"Let me guess," Anakin began in his classic sarcastic tone, "They've just been going about their day and they haven't seen anything unusual?"

Obi-Wan shook his head at his apprentice, choosing to ignore his snide comment, "It seems you may have been right about this whole endeavor. No one has seen the man we're looking for, which is surprising with how out of place he looks in a city like this."

"Well I'm not surprised. I told you this whole thing was a waste of time. Our guy has probably been sitting in a nearby hideout for hours at this point just sleeping away while we run around aimlessly looking for him."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Kenobi countered, "The attack seemed almost, unplanned, or at the very least something went wrong, otherwise I feel like we would have had a lot more dead bodies on our hands. Besides, it's always worth checking every possible lead, and citizens are usually more open to speaking to Jedi than local officers, or clones for that matter."

"Yeah well, at the end of the day, we have nothing to show for our efforts."

"For now, at least. Anyway, we better get back to the temple and give our report, see if any of the other teams have faired better than we have."

"Finally, it seems we agree on what we should do next."

Kenobi rolled his eyes at the younger Jedi's comment before heading back towards the speeder parked nearby. Anakin was about to follow when he turned and gazed in the direction of the Jedi Temple. Something felt off in the Force, like it was trying to warn him about something, but it couldn't quite communicate with him. He pressed into the feeling and stared at the temple, something drawing him further in.

"Are you coming appreciate, or shall I leave you here to get further acquainted with the locals?"

Anakin was snapped out of his mental headspace by Kenobi's question, he looked back at the temple, but the feeling was gone. He shook his head before slowly turning away and answering.

"Coming master."

* * *

Palpatine glanced over his shoulder as he quickly typed in a memorized sequence on a hidden keypad, that had revealed itself after a disguised scanner recognized his handprint. The unrecognizable door slid open to a kind of airlock, which Palpatine stepped inside. The panel closed behind him and the room began to scan the chancellor, reading his biometrics and ensuring he was alone. Once the scan was completed the next door opened to a dark communications room with very dim red lighting. Stepping to his private chamber, Palpatine quickly wrapped himself in a dark robe and slid the hood over his head and face, also summoning the Force to further disguise his features. He began to loosen his vocal cords, allowing his naturally corrupted voice to no longer be hidden behind his well-practiced accent. Tapping a few keys on a console beside him the large communicator lit up blue in front of him and after a few moments of waiting, an old white-haired man appeared before him, quickly moving to one knee to bow before the chancellor.

"How may I serve you, my master?" The old gentlemen spoke with an air of sophistication and one who was raised among the upper class of society.

"There has been a great disturbance in the Force my appreciate." The dark gravelly voice of Palpatine addressed the kneeling man.

"I am aware my lord. I have been feeling its effects for quite some time. Do we know what caused it?"

"Not what, Darth Tyranus, but who. An individual suddenly appeared in my office this morning quite... violently. He is the source of this disturbance. Where he comes from and what he wants, I do not know yet, but I intend to find out."

"What would you have me do, my master?"

Palpatine typed once more on the console, out of Tyranus' view before speaking again. "I am sending you all the information I currently have available on this individual, security footage, crime scene analysis from the investigators, and any other information that the Republic uncovers will also be quietly sent to you. I want you to do as much research as you can on the matter. Cross-reference all the information we have with my personal archives. Leave no stone unturned until you have some relevant information for me. This is your highest priority, see to nothing else until this is done."

Tyranus looked up at his master before speaking, "Then...what of the war, my master?"

Palpatine paused and thought for a moment before answering. "Have Grievous and your assassin take over any operations you were to oversee for the time being. We shall continue with my plans as we previously discussed for the present moment. I will let you know if any changes are necessary."

"I understand, I shall not fail you in this matter. I will contact you when I have found some information of note."

"See to it that you do, my appreciate. I would hate to be disappointed in this matter." Tyranus bowed deeply again before Palpatine shut off the communicator.

As the chancellor exited his private quarters, seemingly distracted with some lint on his arm he had recently found, he almost bumped straight into master Windu, who was standing in front of the door, arms crossed, and looking quite annoyed, but then again when didn't he?

"Ah! Master Jedi. I’m afraid you give me quite the fright just now. Perhaps you shouldn't be standing so close to doorways?"

"And perhaps you should be quicker about 'freshening up.' This building is still on lockdown and your quarters are an obvious place for a new attack."

Palpatine waved his hand dismissively at the Jedi before him. "Come now master Jedi. The threat has been scared away. If there was going to be another attack on my life, they would have done so by now."

"Do not be so certain." Master Plo Koon spoke as he came around the corner, drawing the attention of both Windu and the chancellor. "The mind of an assassin is often unpredictable; thus, we must always be on guard."

"Hmmm...well said, master jedi." Palpatine complemented the Kel-Dor.

"Senate security wishes to do another sweep of the building, I advise we move the chancellor to his personal bunker in the lower levels until they are finished as a precaution; just in case they come across any surprises left behind."

Windu nodded at Plo's advice, "I agree." He said before turning to the chancellor, with some obvious irritation still on his face.

Palpatine let out sigh and shrugged slightly. "Well, I don't suppose there's any point in trying to argue the matter." And slowly began to walk towards the elevators. Windu glanced back at Plo and shook his head before the two Jedi began to follow behind the chancellor.

* * *

Revan moved silently through the Jedi temple. He often would have to slip in the shadows or behind whatever object he could find to hide and allow his stealth field generator to recharge. Progress was slow and difficult, Jedi were everywhere, and while the generator and his own Force suppression made him almost completely invisible to the Jedi in both their senses and visuals, the generator worked less and less effectively the faster the wearer moved. Adding to the difficulty, the temple was busy with activity, giving Revan many close calls up this point. Finally, he had arrived at the archives. Thankfully, it seemed today was not a reading day as they appeared to be almost completely empty.

Revan moved silently further into the archives, staying away from the main halls and alleys of the massive library. Finally, he found a few terminals, nestled away in one of the secluded corners, meant to be a place of quite and private study, something Revan remembered he had always wished the archives on Dantooine had had. Pushing the old memories from his mind he settled in front of a terminal, and after checking his surrounding he began to type on the digital keypad that appeared before him. As he did so, a panel to his left opened and a security console that could only be interacted with by the Force was revealed. It seems the Jedi had added some levels of security, ensuring only Jedi could access the information. Clever. Revan moved his hand over the terminal and tried a few patterns with the Force, and after a few failed attempts he succeeded. "I guess too many students get it wrong so often there’s simply no alarm for getting it wrong...can't say I blame them." Revan though to himself.

The terminal now unlocked displayed a myriad of menus and options. Revan quickly scanned the interface and began to type his desired information, starting with the dating method of PRR. The display answered him, and Revan slowly leaned back in his chair processing the information that had just slammed into him like a mudhorn. "Post Ruusan Reformation...4,000 years...so...time travel...who would have guessed?" Revan whispered to himself, scoffing slightly at the absurdity of it all. "I would have much preferred pocket dimension, at least those always have an exit."

His mind wanted to race, the implications of everything he once knew as familiar long gone, dead, or destroyed. But before his mind could spiral in on itself, Revan clenched his fists and took hold of thoughts. After a moment of being completely still, Revan had control. Sitting up quickly he began to type again. There would be time to morn later, right now he was on a ticking timer, and he couldn't see how much was left.

Next, he searched his name. He cursed in Mando under his breath when the RESTRICTED symbol appeared in front of him. "Good to know the Jedi haven't changed in all these years. I always hated this. Hide your dirty skeletons away so the young and impressionable cannot be led astray. Then have them turn against you regardless, when they find how much has been hidden from them, and that they've been lied to for so long." Revan shook his head and scoffed. He continued to search names, dates, locations, battles, and anything relevant to his past simply to get some clear idea of what happened once had had disappeared from the Galaxy but he continued to be denied access.

Finally, Revan slumped back in his chair with a sigh. "Seems my trip here was a waste of time. I should have known better than to take this risk. Where are all those those insufferable Jedi masters now?"

Almost as if by fate, Jedi Master Jocasta Nu came around the corner, she thought she had heard some muttering in the back of the archives and had come to investigate. Seeing the cloaked figure, she approached them, her normal responsibilities kicking in on instinct. "May I help you find something my dear?"

A smirk slowly crept onto the edges of Revan's hidden features, perhaps the Force really did have a sense of humor. "Why yes...I do believe you can."

* * *

Barriss and Ahsoka were almost done with their assignment when Ahsoka grabbed her head and had to steady herself against the digital case to keep from falling. Barriss quickly glanced over, then rushed to help her friend. "Are you alright?"

Ahsoka could not answer for a moment, then slowly nodded her head as the feeling passed. "I'm okay, but...somethings wrong. I think someone is in the temple."

Barriss' eyes widen in fear and surprise, "Can you sense where they are?"

Ahsoka closed her eyes again then opened them suddenly and turned sharply. "This way...they’re close. I think they're in the archives."

Barriss looked in the same direction, still visibly nervous. "We should report this." She said before drawing her communicator, but Ahsoka put a hand on hers to stop her.

"Not yet. The temple is already on alert, if I'm wrong we'll get in a lot of trouble, we need to confirm it first. Plus, I doubt I'm the only Jedi who sensed this."

Barriss looked at Ahsoka, uncertainly covering her features, glancing at the possible intruder then back, she nodded and a look of determination entered her eyes. She put away he communicator, drew her saber and nodded. "Lead the way. I've got your back."

Ahsoka nodded, drew her two sabers and began to move quietly towards the back of the archives.

* * *

Masters Yoda and Aayla Secura stood on opposite ends of a large display in the middle of the security center of the temple. The hologram was currently showing the different teams of Jedi in the senate district and what their statuses were. Several clones and other Jedi moved quickly around the room, handling different transmissions and sending packets of data wherever they were needed.

"We've been searching for hours and still no sign of our mystery man." Aayla spoke with an air of tiredness in her voice. "I am afraid the attacker has either gone to ground, or has already escaped our net. He may have even managed to get off world before the barricade could get into position."

"Escaped, our target, has not." Yoda disagreed with the other master's assessment of the situation. "Closer than we realize, he is."

Aayla looked at the far older, wiser, and more powerful master, nodding as she stroked her chin in contemplation. Somehow, she knew the head of the council was correct. "I do wonder why there has been no trace of him as of yet. Surely we would have uncovered some lead to his location by now."

"Patience. In these matters, trust in the Force, we must."

Aayla nodded in agreement before both masters stopped and turned their gaze off into the distance. Yoda turned away from the display and closed his eyes.

"You feel it too?" Aayla questioned.

Yoda took a deep breath before nodding and turning back. "Descended over the temple, a dark cloud has."

Aayla quickly turned to one of the nearby clones who was working on a terminal, "Put the temple on high alter, and lock down all entrances and star craft, no one leaves until further notice."

"Right away general." The clone saluted before quickly typing away at the console again. Yoda and Aayla looked at each other, both with a small level of uneasiness in their eyes as Aayla changed the display to show only the temple itself.

* * *

Barriss and Ahsoka made their way silently between the towering stacks of information surrounding them. Pausing at every corner with stopped breath and tightened grip on their sabers. Their hearts were beginning to race, but they each steeled themselves for whomever or whatever they would face. Finally, as they came around one corner, they saw it. Standing over a terminal, with the chair completely moved to the side, stood a figure dressed in a black robe. Their hands were both on the desk either side of the display, which was quickly blinking and flashing away images. Ashoka scanned the desk and realized that the figure had hooked up a data pad to the terminal and must be copying a sizable amount of information onto it.

Looking further she saw something that almost made her gasp. Master Nu was laying on the desk, her hand resting on the security console beside the display. Ashoka got back around the corner and clenched her hands around her sabers tightly in anger. If this creep had hurt master Nu in any way, they were going to pay for it. Barriss peaked around the same corner then looked at Ahsoka with a similar face of resolve. Pulling out her communicator-

"Are you two are done sneaking around, planning your next move?"

The two padawans stopped, frozen for a moment. They locked eyes with each other. If the intruder knew they were here and had managed to best a Jedi master without anyone sensing it, he could probably stop them from using their communicators. They both knew what they had to do. They slowly made their way into view, both with their sabers ready but not yet activated.

"There," The man spoke with a clearly augmented voice, "now we are all out in the open." He finished speaking by standing up straight and turning towards the two young Jedi. He couldn't help but smirk to himself slightly as he saw the momentary surprise and fear flash over their features when they saw his armor and mask. It never got old to see the reaction Jedi always seemed to have when encountering him for the first time.

"What did you do to master Nu? And who are you?" Ahsoka demanded, trying her best to keep her emotions calm and her anger low.

Revan examined the two Jedi before him, clearly padawans, but they held themselves with confidence and battle experience. Strange, for Jedi so young. He crossed his arms and shifted his gaze between the two of them. Each felt uneasy when the black eye-slit made eye contact with them.

"My name is Revan." He finally answered after considering for a few moments. "And your master is fine, she is merely asleep. I did not harm her."

Ahsoka could sense no lie from the man, but she didn't trust it as she could barely even feel the man in the Force, but the lightsabers on his belt told her he clearly could use the Force, or was some kind of cyborg freak like General Grievous. She glanced at Barriss and the two padawans began to move around Revan, setting themselves up on opposite ends of him.

"We can't let you leave with that information." Barriss spoke up as she slowly moved into position.

Revan smiled slightly as he saw the obvious maneuver to try and attack him from both sides. Clearly these Jedi did have combat experience and now he was curious to see how much. He considered using his lightsabers, but decided it was not worth potentially seriously hurting one or both of them. The last thing he needed was more Jedi masters wanting to hunt him down.

"Come now, we can talk this out. There is no need for violence."

Ahsoka stopped moving and began to crouch. Staring into the dark eyes of the mask she narrowed her eyes and called the Force to her. "I'm done talking." She then suddenly leapt at Revan, igniting both sabers as she did so. Barriss, who had been watching intently did the exact same just a split second behind.

Revan, for his part, could not help but start to enjoy himself. He suddenly moved, faster than the two padawans. He used his gauntlets, made of a mixture Mandalorian iron and Rakatan alloys, to cause both blades to be a glancing blow. He then grabbed Ahsoka by her arm and threw her towards Barriss, who ducked just in time, causing Ahsoka to hit the far wall of the corner behind her. Barriss looked back concerned for her friend, then when she turned as she realized her mistake.

Revan had grappled both her wrists in an instant, and twisted them, causing her to drop her lightsaber. He then flipped her over onto her back on the floor, put her in a chokehold, and pinched a nerve on the side of her neck hard until she passed out. Revan then lowered her unconscious body to the floor, frowning slightly at the disappointingly short fight.

"Get away from her!" Ashoka demanded as she stood up and reignited her sabers. Revan smiled to himself as he stood up and faced Ahsoka.

"Seems you have quite a bit of fight in you padawan."

Ahsoka glared at the man before flipping both of her sabers into a reverse grip and taking her most well-known fighting stance. "Oh, you have no idea." She then rushed forward again.

* * *

Anakin and Obi-Wan had just landed in the Jedi Temple hanger. "I still don't know why the temple decided to go on high alert, all systems look green according to the security team." Anakin spoke to his old friend and mentor with genuine confusion and some concern.

"I'm afraid I don't have any answers for you, my apprentice, but we must trust that master Yoda would not have made that order if he did not have good reason to do so." Kenobi offered a cooler counterpoint, to Anakin's fiery demeanor.

"All I'm saying is that it seems like a slight over reaction. We need Jedi out their, searching for this guy, not just sitting here waiting for something to happen that might not."

"Patience my young apprentice, we must trust in the Force in these matters. It is important to take a moment to center yourself and wait for-" but before the older Jedi could finish, both Jedi stopped and looked at each other.

"It's Ahsoka. She's in trouble." Anakin said, worry slowly rising to his voice.

"I sense it too." Obi-Wan quickly responded before the two dashed towards the hanger exit.

* * *

Green and Yellow saber clashed against silver metal for only a split second, time and time again, lighting up the small area of the library as two combatants danced and moved around each other. Occasionally the younger padawan would throw force blasts or pushes at her enemy, but they seemed to be negated by his own defenses easily. Frustration and anger were beginning to build in Ahsoka as the relatively short fight began to drag on. She had not managed to land a single blow of any kind, but in turn hand managed to dodge several kicks, punches, and grabs, all of which she knew would probably mean the end of the fight for her.

Revan was impressed with his opponent. While still no where close to an fair fight for him, she was quick, observant, and was managing to dodge him constantly and read his moves. Whoever had trained her was unorthodox, but a skilled combatant. He could also sense the anger and frustration building inside her. She had not yet been fully trained to suppress her emotions, which was curious to Revan. He could sense the dark side calling to her at the edges of her mind. Before Revan could reach further in, a notification displayed in front of him. The download timer was finished. Glancing at his gauntlets he noticed they were beginning to break down. The special mixture of Rakatan alloys and Beskar made his armor extremely lightsaber and blaster resistant, but not invulnerable. Eventually it would break. Thus, he had done his best to keep the saber hits to glancing blows, not wanting to make extended contact with the blades. Deciding it was time to end the fight, he fainted a lunge with a grab.

Ahsoka saw the lunge and in the heat of the moment decided to dodge it, only a second later to realize her mistake, as the real intended leg sweep knocked her off her feet. In an instant she was pinned, and her wrists twisted causing her to drop her sabers. She looked up at the mask now staring down at her. Fear, anger, confusing, and rage all tried to take over her mind, but she simply closed her eyes and breathed. She had lost and now she was probably going to die. Opening her eyes again she was calm and stared directly into the face of her opponent.

Revan starred back, simply examining her for a moment, considering. He then, much to Ahsoka's surprise stood up, took her sabers, and walked back to the desk, leaving her where she was.

Ahsoka slowly got up and watched the man, she was confused. Half of her mind was screaming at her to run and get help, raise the alarm, but for some reason she stayed.

"You're the terrorist, aren't you?" Ahsoka asked as she stayed seated, her back to an archive case.

Revan sighed and shook his head as he checked the data pad to ensure it had finished downloading. "I am not a terrorist. Answer me this, if my intention was to kill anyone, why are no senators, politicians, Jedi, or even civilians dead? Has anyone brought that information to your attention? Are any of the authorities bothering to present these facts? Of course not."

Ahsoka was confused and had nothing to say. She looked over at Barriss and Master Nu, who were both clearly still breathing, and she realized again that she was alive. She felt truly lost now as to what to think. "Then why do all that? Why explode the senate building, and why come here and attack the temple, and steal from it?"

Satisfied with his check, Revan slipped the data pad under his robes, then gently moved Barriss and Jocasta away from the desk he had been working on.

"You probably won't believe any of this, but the senate building was an accident, I truly had no idea that would happen. As for the temple, I needed answers and I knew I could find them here. And for your accusation of stealing," Revan turned to look at Ahsoka picking up the four lightsabers he had collected in one hand before walking over to her and kneeling in front of her. "One cannot steal what already belongs to them." His voice was calm, confident, level. Somehow Ahsoka knew he wasn't lying, but she didn't understand.

Before she could press further Revan extended his hand, offering all 4 sabers to her. More confused than ever, she slowly reached out her hands and took them.

"...Be careful what you believe little one, and who you listen to. Even the Jedi have made more mistakes than they will ever admit. No one is infallible. Everyone can be wrong."

His words seemed to come from someplace deeper, like a man recalling an old memory. There was an obvious double meaning to what Revan said, but before she could ask anything else Revan slowly waved a hand in front of her and while she struggled to stay awake sleep quickly claimed her.

Revan watched her fall asleep and simply stayed, kneeling in front of her for a moment, then his head turned slightly as he sensed approaching Jedi. Time to leave, he thought.

Moving with a purpose now Revan went back to the desk he had been working on, he placed both hands just over the display, and took a deep breath.

* * *

Anakin, Obi-Wan, and several temple guards sprinted into the archives. All had their sabers ready and were scanning the room. Suddenly, a massive explosion caught their attention, and they all ran towards it igniting their sabers as they went. Anakin rushed ahead of the group and rounded several corners before arriving in the back of the library. Before him was the blacked chard remains of an archive terminal. Only the edges of the desk itself remained, and the majority of the middle had been completely eviscerated, leaving only ash and spurting electronic wires behind. Anakin quickly scanned the corner and saw the three unconscious Jedi all leaned up against the bookcase to his side. He turned off his saber and knelt before them, immediately going to his appreciate and calling her name. "Ahsoka! Ahsoka! Are you alright?"

Kenobi and the guards rounded the corner and were stopped by the contained but devastating destruction in front of them. They then turned and rushed to check on the other Jedi. Kenobi knelt beside Anakin, slight worry on his face.

Ahsoka slowly opened her eyes and looked around. "Masters?" Both Anakin and Kenobi were swept with a sense of relief and Anakin quickly hugged his apprentice.

"It's okay," Anakin assured her, "you're safe now." Ahsoka tried her best to stay awake but sleep overtook her again.

Obi-Wan stood up and turned to the guards, "How are the others?"

"No obvious major injuries master," One responded, "but both are unconscious."

"Very good. Get all three of them to the medical ward, immediately." Kenobi ordered.

The guard bowed and began to issue orders to the others while stretchers were brought in.

Kenobi turned and slowly walked towards what was left of the console. Crossing his arms and stroking his beard in contemplation. These recent events had raised so many questions. Hopefully the padawans could provide some answers.


	5. Chapter 4 - Chased

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, and thank you again for taking some time out of your day for reading my story! I just want to quickly share two things before we get into this chapter: 1. Thank you all so much for your support and feedback! I have gotten so many comments, messages, suggestions, and love from you all it's truly amazing and I never thought people would be this interested in engaging with me or this narrative! So thank you all so much for that support, it really means a lot and whenever you all let me know what you think, it helps make the story better for all of us!
> 
> 2\. Just as a fair warning, this chapter's tone and content is quite a bit darker than anything we've seen so far. It was for chapters like this one that I decided to give the 'M' rating. I honestly do not know if things will get darker in tone than this chapter, but I simply wanted the flexibility of being able to go up to or slightly past this level. So if anyone of you have been wondering why this mild story has even had an 'M' rating up this point, now you know it's more of a case where I would rather be safe and over rate it than under rate it.
> 
> Anyway, that's all I got for you guys! Please let me know what you think as always in the form of reviews and messages. Any and all feedback is welcome and I hope you all enjoy this next chapter!

Chapter 4 – Chased

Revan took a moment to steady himself and lean against the wall of an alley. He had just spent the better part of the past few hours nimbly dodging and avoiding Jedi on his way out of the temple. Eventually he had managed to get into the ventilation system and exit through the force field surrounding the vents, forcing a hole through the energy field on the outside of the temple by force lightning. Now his stealth field generator was completely spent and Revan had to admit to himself, he was tired. The constant use of Force suppression was not a new or particularly taxing thing on the trained former Jedi, but along with the amount of movement, sneaking, jumping, and fighting he had been forced to accomplish today, the demands on his body were beginning to weigh on him.

Thus, he decided to take a small respite and duck into an alley to catch his breath. Time, unfortunately, was not a luxury Revan had. After his close escape from the temple, Revan knew it was only a matter of time before the Jedi tracked him down. There was, after all, only so far he could go on foot and the military had shifted their perimeter to now only a few mile radius around the Jedi temple, leaving Revan with very few options. Taking another deep breath to steady himself, Revan began to think of possible solutions, his mind searching for some kind of escape plan.

Before he properly had a moment to think however, his thoughts were interrupted. A noise had caused Revan to shift his attention and to his surprise, he had zoned out enough mentally that he had allowed himself to be snuck up on. A human and a Bith were standing side-by-side, blocking the street entrance to the alley, while a Rodian had rounded a corner and was blocking access to further down the alley. All three thugs carried a knife and a small concealable blaster, which they had proceeded to slowly draw as they surrounded their would-be prey.

"Look what we got here boys!" The Rodian spoke first, "Some kind of poor lost soul. Do you think we should help him?"

"Yeah Ito," The human replied, "This guy does look kinda lost. I guess we can...help him find his way." The three muggers began to chuckle and laugh as they toyed with what they thought was their next victim, each slowly stepping closer to further surround Revan.

Revan sighed heavily and leaned his head into his arm he had propped up on the wall, "Trust me gentlemen. You don't want to do this."

The thugs laughed at Revan's statement. "This guy thinks he's real funny, don't he Ito?"

"Yeah, seems we got ourselves a regular comedian." The Rodian responded before fully drawing his blaster and stepping closer. "Alright pal, hand over all your credits. Now!" To accent his point he leveled the barrel of his pistol with Revan's head.

Revan closed his eyes tightly, very annoyed with his present situation. He didn't have time for this, but these were just idiot's, not worth his full attention, so, he made his decision of how he would deal with them. "One." Revan spoke without moving at all.

The goons stopped their advances and looked at each other confused. "One? What's he mean by 'one' Ito?"

Before the Rodian could answer, Revan's augmented voice spoke again, "Two."

"What's this guy saying! One? Two? Is he trying to make fun of us?" The Bith demanded in obvious anger.

The Rodian shook himself from his confusion and marched closer to Revan, placing his pistol to the side of Revan's head, "Hey ya freak! Are you deaf or something?"

There was a second of pause, then Revan's eyes opened behind his mask. "Three." Once he said the word Revan moved back from the wall and stared directly at the Rodian, who promptly turned a few shades greener on coming face to face with the demonic mask, now obvious armor, and hanging lightsabers.

"He's a Jedi!" The Rodian shouted to his compatriots before attempting to shoot Revan square in the face, but before he could pull the trigger, he suddenly found himself frozen in place, unable to move any part of himself but his eyes and his mouth. "Uh! What is this? Guys, shoot him!"

The other two thugs not quite understand what had happened raised their pistols as well to fire, but found themselves in the exact same position as their partner.

The Bith started to swivel his eyes around in a panic, and then, to his horror, realized his arm was moving without his consent. His body was forced to slowly move the pistol he was holding to the side of his head. He began to sputter his language incoherently, begging to be spared, but as soon as the pistol was lined up to the side of his skull, he felt his fingers pull the trigger.

Both the human's and Ito's eyes widened in shock and fear as they were forced to watch their partner's body slump to the floor, a cauterized hole burning slightly on either side of his head. Before either of them had time to fully process this, the human's arm began to move as well. His begs and pleas too fell on deaf ears, as he tried to apologize and make excuses up to his last breath.

As the human fell to the floor the Rodian quickly realized what was going to happen, and he stared with a terrified expression at the cold, lifeless gaze of Revan's mask which simply stood and stared back at him. As the Rodian's arm began to move he spoke in a similar vein as the others had. "Wait! Please! Jedi! I'll do anything you want! I'll never rob anyone again. I'll change, I'll do better! Please I can give you everything I have!" But his words seemed to have no effect has his arm continued to rise up, and just as the pistol made contact with the side of his head- "I have a ship!" He blurted out as his final words with eyes clenched shut.

What surprised the Rodian is that he didn't feel like he was dead, and in fact as he dared to slowly open his eyes he realized he was not. The masked figure was still standing in front of him, and he could still feel the cold metal of his blaster on the side of his skull, but for some reason he was not lying lifeless on the floor like his two companions.

Several tense moments passed in silence as the two simply looked at each other. The masked figure then stepped forward, bent down slightly until the two were exactly eye-level, and the Rodian gulped as the demonic red mask was now inches from his face.

"...What did you say?" Revan asked staring directly into the Rodian's eyes, ready to sense any lie from the thug in the Force.

The Rodian was confused, but managed to shakily repeat the last thing he had just managed to blurt out, "I-I....I ha-have a...ship." He barely managed to speak with another gulp.

Though the Rodian could not see it, a small smile made it's way on to Revan's features.

* * *

Several Jedi stood around the destroyed remains of one of the terminals in the archives. The are had been a similar looking crime scene set up around the remains of the desk and temple guards along with clone officers were moving around the scene with different equipment. Masters Yoda, Aayla Secura, Adi Gallia, Saesee Tiin, Kit Fisto, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker all stood around the scene, contemplating their next move. Obi-Wan stroked his beard thoughtfully and shook his head, this day was becoming far too complicated for his liking. Two crime scenes in one day was never a good sign.

After a few moments of silence, Anakin spoke, "Why did the attacker decided to destroy this terminal? Do we know anything about what he did or how he managed to get in here?"

Aayla answered him, "Security footage shows that the intruder did access the archives, and while it seems he originally was blocked by restricted access, he removed that block by using Master Jocasta's biometrics to gain further access. He can then be seen copying large amounts of data onto a data pad which he took with him. As for how he got into the temple, it seems he used some sort of personal cloaking device."

"So, he can vanish into thin air? Brilliant. This doesn’t make things even more complicated." Anakin stated with obvious frustration as he rolled his eyes.

"That does not explain how he managed to slip past so many Jedi and not be sensed." Adi observed.

"You are right in that respect." Obi-Wan agreed with the other Jedi master. "He must have some ability to mask his presence in the Force. This would also line up with Master Plo's report about barely being able to sense him in the chancellor's office earlier today." The other Jedi nodded at Kenobi's educated guess, it made sense, but didn't bring any comfort or good news to the situation at hand.

"Do we know if he deleted anything from the archives while he was here? Maybe he was covering something up he did not want us to see."

Aayla shook her head at Master Fisto's question, "We've done a complete scan of the archives base code and compared it to the last scan of data run several days ago. It's a complete match, no indication of any code being tampered or removed with on any level."

"Well if he didn't come to delete anything then we must assume his mission was to gather information." Master Tiin stated, "But that does not explain why he destroyed the terminal he was working from before leaving."

As if on que to answer the Jedi's implied query, a clone technician stood up, and waved a data pad in his hand, "I may have an answer for you general." The clone stated before walking over to the group, which had turned to look at him.

"What have you found trooper?" Kit asked.

"Some interesting findings sir. On examining the console, or what's left of it I should say, it seems that the blast of energy actually managed to cause some minor damage to some of the surrounding systems. To protect its information, the archives went into a kind of lockdown self-preservation state to secure all high value data. This means the system prioritized it's most valuable processes and dumped any unnecessary data so it could do a quick and immediate backup to other servers. In short, all recent search history or data inquiries for the past few days have been deleted."

The Jedi looked at each other slightly confused for a moment before Anakin spoke up, "So what you're saying trooper is that the history of whatever was searched for at this terminal has been completely lost, meaning there's no way to know what the intruder called up or copied, correct?"

"Yes sir, that's correct." The clone answered.

"Well that solves one mystery," Adi stated, "so what do we do now?"

Yoda turned towards the group finally addressing his fellow Jedi. "Close, this intruder is. Pursue him now, we must, before the trial grows cold."

"I agree with master Yoda," Kit spoke, "But we're going to need a lead."

"I think I can help you again, generals." The same clone spoke up, his hand pressed to his ear piece. "It seems local security has discovered two dead bodies just a few blocks from here, and several eye-witnesses claim they saw a cloaked figure in a black cloak go into the same alley the bodies were found."

The Jedi all looked at each other with determination, they could catch him, if they moved fast.

"Go, all of you." Yoda spoke again. "Master Aayla and I, remain here, we will. Coordinate your efforts and keep track of your progress, we shall."

Aayla added to Yoda's instructions, "I also took the liberty of contacting Quinlan Vos. He was on assignment in the lower levels of Coruscant, but now is on route to the temple. I'll have him meet you all at the crime scene."

"Cautions, you all must be." Yoda warned them. "This intruder, powerful and cunning, he is. Knows how our systems work, how we function, he does. Underestimate him, do not. Now go, may the Force be with you."

The Jedi bowed to the head of the council before quickly moving towards the temple hanger.

* * *

Revan and the Rodian Ito made their way down several back alleys, and down several floors into the beginning of the lower levels of Coruscant, until they were well in the heart of Coruscant’s mid-district. Not the worst that Coruscant had to offer by any means, but far enough down that the average establishment was no longer completely legitimate. The odd pair walked in silence before Ito turned a corner and stopped in front of a large warehouse surrounded by abandon buildings, far off the normal walking path of most individuals.

"Thi-this is the place." Ito spoke with an obvious nervousness to his voice.

Revan looked up at the building, then stated, "How many are inside?"

Ito's eyes grew large and he began to stammer before Revan cut him off by raising his hand, which caused the cowardly Rodian to stop mid-sentence.

"Don't try to lie to me, I can sense the others inside. How many are there?"

Ito gulped and twiddle his thumbs for a moment before answering. "12. I think. That's how large our crew is, minus the two you killed earlier. But some might not be in right now, I don't know, honest!"

Revan scanned the building up and down, "I believe you. Now. Knock."

Ito looked at Revan ready to object, but the stare he received back from the demonic mask caused his mind to think better of it. Ito slowly made his way to a side door and knocked a few times. A moment passed then a small eye slit opened, revealing an Ithorian, who spoke with a gruff voice in his own language, "About time you showed up, the boss has been looking for you."

"Yeah well," Ito rubbed the back of his neck and tried not to make eye contact. "We got caught up in some...trouble. Just let me in and I'll explain everything to the boss."

The Ithorian seemed to do the equivalent of a human raising an eyebrow, but shrugged and said, "Your funeral." The eye-slit was closed, a few electronic bolts were disengaged with obvious noise and the door swung open.

The Ithorian was about to make another quip at the Rodian, but did not get the chance. His eyes grew large at seeing the intimidating figure that was now standing directly in the doorway. Before he could react, the Ithorian was punched in both of his gills on the side of his long head/neck, causing the alien to drop to his knees in noiseless pain. He tried to scream his agony, but due to the blow he could barely breath.

He looked up at his attacker just in time to feel a fist make contact with the top of his skull, rapidly forcing his head down into the floor of the warehouse. The impact of the armored fist slamming the Ithorian's skull against the concrete in that exact spot cracked the alien's skull and sent shards of bone into his central context, killing him instantly.

As Revan stood up and wiped the green blood from his hand, he turned and look at the stunned and terrified Ito behind him. "If you try to run, I will sense it, and you will die instantly. Stay behind me. Don't get shot."

Ito looked up from the corpse of his former partner and nodded slowly, knowing that somehow this insane Jedi could easily back up his threats.

Revan turned from Ito and made his way into the warehouse. As he rounded the corner of different crates and boxes he came in view of the main area, which was large, open, and mostly cleared out, with random cargo dotted around it. The warehouse was mostly occupied by an old beat up YV-865 Aurore-class freighter, that had clearly seen better days. Also within the room were 11 different aliens and humans of a variety of races, all obviously criminals, smugglers, and pirates. Revan quickly scanned the room, seeing most of the smugglers were lounging around, playing dice, or loading containers onto the transport.

As he was scanning, a male Weequay nudged a male human towards the back, who seemed to be wearing more expensive clothing than the rest, and was more heavily armed.

"Oi, boss!" The Weequay stated loud enough to get the rest of the crew's attention. "Looks like we got an unwelcome guest."

The human boss turned to look at Revan along with the rest of the crew.

"Hey!" The boss got up and locked eyes with Revan, the mask taking him back for a moment before he continued, "How did you get past Flen? Why did he let you in here?" The boss of the gang demanded as the rest also got up and began to draw their weapons.

Revan looked around the room documenting what each pirate possessed, each had a pistol, two had blaster rifles, one had a belt of grenades, and they all carried knives. Revan then looked at the ship, his mask gave him a basic scan and it seemed, for the most part, to be space worthy.

"Your ship." Revan's augmented voice causing a few smugglers to take an uneasy look at their partners. And when Revan looked at the gang again, a few stepped back, despite the glare from their boss. "I'm taking it."

"Hahaha!" The human laughed in response, causing most of the crew to do the same, though some still looked uneasy. "You must be having a laugh! And why exactly should I not just shoot you right now?" The boss stated with assured arrogance as he pointed his rifle at Revan.

"Because." Revan spoke slowly as the hand by his side slowly moved without the notice of the criminals. "You'll be dead before you pull the trigger."

The outraged boss was about to respond, when his head turned to the sound of several grenades being activated close by. The groups demolitions only had enough time to look at their belt of explosives before they violently burst into a fiery explosion, killing 4 crew outright in the blast, and knocking several others off their feet.

Revan leapt into action and began to deal with each pirate. He snapped the first one's neck quickly, he dodged another's swipe with a knife, breaking their arm and stabbing them in the neck with their own weapon. He then proceeded to use the same knife to cut the knee of his next victim, and as they fell he sliced upwards along their throat.

He moved swiftly and dispatched the next two by dodging a blaster bolt, causing it to go across the room and hit another pirate who had just stood up. Before the one who missed her shot could fire again, Revan had thrown his knife in between her eyes. The next two he killed simultaneously by rushing them, dodging their wild blows, breaking their legs with side kicks, then grabbing their necks and slamming them to the ground, shattering their windpipes. Revan looked up at the boss, the final pirate, who had just managed to pull himself up from the explosion, he looked around terrified, his hands shaking at the carnage around him. He tried to aim his blaster at Revan, but suddenly was lifted up by an invisible hand on his throat, which he clutched at in vain trying to stop it from choking him. He then was pulled through the air straight into Revan's outstretched hand. He clawed at Revan's hand and arm, struggling to breath he managed to sputter out a question, "Wh-who ar-are y-yo-you?"

Revan looked into the boss' eyes for a second before answering. "A Crusader." He answered more for himself, before he deftly snapped the neck of the boss with one hand, then releasing the body to slump on the floor in front of his feet.

Revan stood in the midst of his quick and easy victory. He took a moment to breath and steady himself. The battle was over and sometimes he needed to remind his body to stop fighting. Once he collected himself he called out in the warehouse, "Ito!"

The shaking Rodian slowly appeared from behind some crates. He had watched the whole thing and was on the verge of passing out. "Yeeee-sss- yes sir?"

"Come here." The Rodian trembled as he approached the masked man who turned to face him, he wanted to beg for his life but decided now was not the time.

Revan noticed his terrified demeanor and shook his head. "You're no good to me like this." He said before waving his hand in front of the Rodian's face. "You are at peace, everything is fine." Revan spoke with a slightly more soothing tone.

Ito's eyes dilated and his posture changed as he straightened up and stopped shaking. "I am at peace. Everything is fine." He repeated the words in a slightly monotone fashion.

Revan nodded at his response before looking around. "What are in these crates Ito?"

"Spice mostly." Ito replied now without hesitation or fear, "We were going to make a delivery today and change the identification number on this ship we recently stole, but then the lock down happened and we knew we wouldn't make it off planet."

Revan continued to examine his surroundings. "Where was the spice going?"

"Florrum. Big pirate base out there. Best money to be made for spice cuz the Hutts don't get a cut."

Revan nodded in understanding. "And the ship, is she ready to fly?"

"Almost, our mechanic,” Ito pointed to a female body near Revan, “noticed there had been a leak in the hyperdrive when we brought the ship back here. I don't know if she got around to fixing it."

Revan sighed as he looked at the female Theelin with a knife embedded in her forehead. "Knowing my luck today, I suspect she didn't." Revan shook his head slightly before stroking his mask in thought.

"Alright then. Ito."

"Yeah?"

"Load up all the spice into the ship."

"Alright." Ito responded simply, then asked, "What are you going to do?"

Revan began walking onto the ship before turning slightly, "Fixing this ship." He then made his way into the hyperdrive room and saw a myriad of tools and parts lying all around it. He stooped down to examine what he was dealing with. Tapping the side of his mask, it proceeded to scan the drive, tools, and various components before him. It seems there had been a leak, which thankfully was patched. However, the repairs had also uncovered other problems with the drive and several parts needing replacement.

Revan scoffed slightly and mutter in Mando to himself, "Things are never simple for the cursed." Revan began to look at the compiled list of all he had available and pulled up the schematics of the Ebon Hawk’s hyper drive to give himself a general baseline of what he needed to do. His mind naturally drifted to T3 usually handling the repairs. His actions began to slow as images of his old crew, racing around the galaxy to find the star maps began to take over his vision. He missed them. All of them.

Revan quickly shook his head and gripped the tool in his hand harder. Now was not the time, as time itself was currently against him.


	6. Chapter 5 - Escape From Coruscant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys and gals, and sorry for the delay on getting this one out! Life has been absolutely crazy right now, as I am sure most of you can sympathize with, and a lot of my current time management has had to shift drastically. With that being said, this chapter is my second longest to date, right after chapter 3, so I hope that slightly compensates for the wait and what I am about to say next.
> 
> In addition to life getting crazy, college is also coming to a close for this year for me, so finals, end of term projects, and major papers are all flying at me right now with their due dates. Because of this, and other reasons, I will probably not be posting another chapter for the next several weeks. I have tried my best up till this point to keep a consistent schedule for you all as a kind of thank you for all the support and attention I've been getting so quickly. You guys have truly made my life a lot more joyful just by the fact that you want to read my silly fanfic, and I cannot thank you all enough for that.
> 
> I hope you all can understand my reasons for this announcement, and it is my greatest wish that you all will find your way back to this adventure of ours in a few weeks when I can start getting some free time back into my life. I have already started working on chapter 6 and it probably is going to be my longest chapter to date, so I hope that gives you all some excitement for what is ahead of us in this story. 
> 
> Anyway, that's all I have for you all right now, I hope you enjoy this latest chapter, keep sending your feedback my way (I'll still be doing my best to respond to anyone who messages or comments). I can't wait to get back into this story with you all later down the road!

Chapter 5 – Escape From Coruscant

Shadows moved across dark walls. Lights flickered randomly, creating illusions on ancient stone. Statues of hideous monsters came into view and disappeared just as quickly. Panting could be heard as she ran, faster, and faster. She had to get there, she had to make it. Screams were heard in the distance, then suddenly mist surrounded her. She stumbled in the grey fog before finally colliding into something, it was a control panel. Looking around she was on the bridge of a ship. There was an intense and chaotic battle raging outside the view port and the ship shook violently with different explosions. Four figures stood at the head of the bridge, in what looked like a 1 vs. 3 situation. Dialogue was exchanged. Lightsabers were raised. Then, she noticed, a ship outside the view port was turning. It was going to fire on them. She called out a warning.

Ahsoka woke up with a gasp. The intense dream she had experienced slowly drifted from her mind. She tried to hold on to it, to grasp it and understand it, but it was too late.

"Did you have a bad dream?"

Ahsoka turned to the familiar voice, "Barriss?" The two padawans were in the medical wing of the Jedi temple, the soft sounds of different science equipment beeped and hummed in the background and it seemed the two Jedi had a two person room to themselves. "What happened?" Ahsoka asked finally.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Barriss asked as she sat on the other bed with her feet hanging off the side, a few bandages on her legs and arms.

"I remember...we fought the intruder. He beat us-"

"Badly." Barriss interjected with a hint of frustration as she looked at the floor.

Ahsoka simply glanced up, she had the same feeling of guilt that they had failed to stop him. She continued, "You got knocked out first, I kept fighting as best I could." She rubbed her slightly pained wrists as she recalled the fight. "He disarmed me, I thought I was dead but then...he let me live." She looked up at Barriss who returned her gaze.

They were both thinking the same thing, the attack had been odd to say the least. If this had been a normal Sith, bounty hunter, or assassin they would both be dead, and now they were left to wonder why not?

"Did he say anything?" Barriss asked curiously.

Ahsoka looked down at the floor, her eyes darting back and forth in thought. "When I accused him of stealing the information, he said 'One can not steal what already belongs to them.'" Ahsoka looked up at Barriss who had a look of confusing on her face. "And the weirdest part was...it didn't feel like he was lying."

Barriss stroked her chin thoughtfully. "To be fair Ahsoka, most Jedi in the temple couldn't even sense him, that probably also extends to his ability to lie."

"Yeah...I guess you might be right." But Ahsoka was not confident in that answer, this whole thing felt wrong somehow, like she only had a few of the pieces to a massive puzzle, and something burned in her mind to find the rest.

Before the padawans could continue their discussion, the door slid opened with a hiss. They both turned to see Master Yoda slowly walking in with his cane.

"Master Yoda." The two padawans instinctively began to get up to bow, but Yoda quickly gestured for them to stay seated.

"Please. Sit. How are you two feeling?" He asked with genuine sympathy and concern in his voice, almost like a kind grandfather.

"We're pretty much fine." Ahsoka stated, which Barriss nodded to and continued on, "The medical droid told me that we only had minor injuries, nothing serious or broken."

"Good. Good." Yoda stated with a smile as he jumped onto the counter and sat opposite the two padawans. "Hearing you are well, brings warm feelings to my heart."

"Thank you master for your concern and kindness." Barriss said with a small smile.

"Yes...thank you master, but why did you come see us? Shouldn't we be out there looking for the intruder? Or did we catch him?"

Yoda shook his head somberly. "Escaped, the intruder did. Several masters, dispatched to search for him, already left, they have."

Ahsoka looked disappointed at the news. Not only had he managed to escape, but she was stuck in this room being useless when she should be out there helping Anakin and the other Jedi.

"Came here I did," Yoda continued, "To commend your efforts. Very brave, it was, to protect the Jedi archives." The two padawans smiled slightly at each other for the high praise from Master Yoda. "But, now, questions for you two, I have. Know more about this attacker, we must." The two padawans glanced at each other before looking at Yoda.

Ahsoka spoke up, "His name...is Revan."

* * *

5 Jedi stood in various places near a crime scene on the upper streets of Coruscant. For two of the Jedi, it was their third one today, and they were beginning to grow tired of it. Anakin, Fisto, and Tiin stood over the two body bags that were slightly open at their heads, revealing the faces of a human and a Bith. Kit knelt down beside them and was examining the burn marks on the sides of their skulls.

"Looks like blaster fire. Point blank range." He said looking up at his fellow Jedi.

"Then this might not be our man. He's never been seen using a blaster." Tiin put forward as a possibility.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Anakin stated with his arms crossed as he looked down at the bodies. "What kind of common alley fight ends with two dead bodies right next to each other, both with pointblank blaster bolts to the side of their heads? In almost the exact same spot as well? I think something different killed these guys." Tiin and Kit nodded at Skywalkers’ keen observation.

"You've caught an unusual scent, as always my apprentice." Kenobi stated as he and Adi entered the alley from the street.

"We just finished talking to some witnesses," Adi began to explain. "they both say a dark robed figured entered the alley, then the human and the Bith followed shortly after. A few minutes later they heard screaming and yelling, followed by blaster fire. They immediately contacted local security."

"Combine that with fuzzy surveillance footage from a nearby store camera that security managed to pull," Kenobi continued by holding up a hologram which showed a familiar dark robed man looking down the street as he snuck into the alley. The feintest bit of a red mask could be seen under his hood in the fuzzy display. "and I'd say we have our man."

Anakin's fist tightened subtly as he looked at the hologram. "Too bad he didn't leave us a trail to follow."

"I believe I can help with that Skywalker!" A loud and enthusiastic voice came from the entrance to the alley, causing the Jedi to turn and Kenobi to roll his eyes slightly before doing the same.

"Good timing as always Vos." Kit said as he stood up and shook the fellow Jedi Master's hand.

Quinlan Vos displayed his signature bright smile as he entered the scene. "Kenobi! Long time no see!" He stated as he gave the older jedi a friendly punch in the arm.

Kenobi sighed slightly and rubbed his arm before responding, "Yes, good to see you too."

Anakin smiled slightly and chuckled at the whole affair before getting serious again. "We really need your help on this one Vos. We’ve got a dangerous target and he's currently getting away."

Vos nodded at the commanding presence of Anakin. "I know, Aayla briefed me on my way here. Now," Vos said as he moved forward over the two bodies, "let's see what we're dealing with." He proceeded to kneel to the ground and place his palm on the pavement, closing his eyes as he did so. He concentrated for several moments before his eyes opened. "I’ve got him...and he's not alone," he stood up before finishing. "he's got a Rodian with him."

"There's been no report of this man having a partner." Adi stated as the Jedi looked at each other.

"We can't rule out anything as a possibility right now, but two bodies to track is better than one." Tiin stated simply, to which the other Jedi nodded.

"The two went down a few levels." Vos turned around before continuing, "I'll have to track again from down there."

"Alright, once we have a rough idea of what level he's on, I say we split up." The other Jedi looked at Anakin questioningly. "If he managed to get spotted like this once, I'm willing to bet he got seen again. If we go in pairs of two I bet we'll have a better chance of possibly surrounding this guy from multiple sides. We'll all stay in constant radio contact and move roughly in whatever direction Vos tracks this guy, but in a wider arch."

"Spreading out a net to give us a better chance of cutting off his escape." Kit finished the explanation. "Good thinking Skywalker.

Kenobi stroked his beard in thought before answering. "Alright, we'll follow Anakin's plan. I will go with Vos. Masters Kit and Tiin can go together. And Adi...keep Anakin out of trouble." Kenobi said with a small smirk as he looked at his apprentice.

Anakin smirked back before answering, "If you can't do it master, who do you think can?"

Adi rolled her eyes at the exchange before shouting. "Alright everyone, let's move it!" All 6 jedi took off with Vos in the lead towards the lower levels.

* * *

Anakin and Adi found themselves along one of the seedier strips of Coruscant. There were rough looking cantinas, pawn, and sex shops, along with many obvious fronts for different scrupulous dealings. The pair of Jedi were headed straight for the largest and busiest cantina in the whole sector.

"Why are we going down this street Skywalker?" Adi asked, "I know the plan was to cast a wide net, but Vos and Obi-Wan are moving deeper into the warehouse section of this district and I think we should be too."

"Here's my thinking, our intruder might have already bought passage for himself off the planet, and is either gone or laying low until he can leave. Either way, I bet you there's someone in here who knows about that deal, or knows about everyone currently looking for passage."

"You might be right, but it's a wild guess at this point."

Anakin shrugged, "Call it, Jedi intuition. And I promise, we'll only be in here a minute, then we'll catch up and be closer to Vos and Kenobi."

Adi looked up at the flashing signs for the bar. Along with the various kinds of sex workers and drug dealers loitering just outside the establishment, eyeing anyone who came close and instantly trying to lure them over. She sighed and shook her head before saying, "I'll give you 5 minutes, then we're gone."

"5 minutes is all I need." Anakin said with a bit of a smirk. The two Jedi walked confidently up to the entrance. The large alien bouncer looked down at them. He was about to say something when he noticed their lightsabers and the 'just try to get in our way' look he received from Anakin, which made him quickly step out of the pair’s way.

The two Jedi entered the bar as semi-loud music, light smoke, and all manner of conversation, laughter, and general noise hit them at once. They scanned the room looking for anyone who might stand out, but in this crowd, almost everyone stood out. A few patrons and a bartender eyed the Jedi with suspicion, but they weren't low enough in the city to risk the authorities being called on them, so everyone who did take notice quickly went back about their business.

Anakin began to walk into the mild chaos before Adi tapped his shoulder and said, "Where are you going?"

"Where else? To get a drink." Anakin replied with a slight smirk before continuing his walk.

Adi rolled her eyes and moved towards the back of the cantina.

Anakin slowly made his way through the crowd to the bar, occasionally nudging different humans and aliens out of his way. Some turned to give him a mouthful, but quickly changed their minds at the sight of a Jedi.

Anakin finally made his way to the bar. Out of his view, a male Balosar almost spit out his drink when he saw the Jedi, quickly grabbing his pile of death sticks and making a hasty exit.

The bartender slowly turned and looked at Anakin as he cleaned a glass. After a few seconds of observing Anakin look around the bar he coughed, getting the knight's attention. "What can I do ya fors, master Jedi?"

Anakin leaned against the counter and lowered his voice as he spoke. "Know anyone who delivers...unmarked cargo around here?"

"Nows whys would ah Jedis wants to know?" The bartender asked.

Anakin simply leaned off the counter, revealing a small amount of credits where his hand had been previously. "I wanna buy them a drink."

The bartender chuckled slightly before swiping the credits and pointing to a group of Rodians gathered in a back booth.

Anakin nodded at the bartender and made his way towards the Rodians, careful that they wouldn't see him approach. Once he got close, he used the Force to concentrate on their conversation and block out the noise around him.

"This is a gonna be a disaster for us, if the blockade doesn't lift soon."

"I know I know! We gotta get that spice out of here."

"But how? Security confiscated our ship this week! You should have never taken this deal!"

"Hey hey, relax. My cousin Ito told me he's got his own ship now, crew and everything! He'll hook us up, I promise. In fact, the warehouse he's operating out of is nearby."

"How can we be sure?"

"I sent one of our boys over to meet with him a few levels up. He should be back any min-" As if on que a Rodian suddenly ran into the bar and made their way panting back to the table with the other Rodians.

"Woah! Greedo! Slow down man, you'll hurt yourself. What's got you all riled up?"

Greedo took several gasps of air and proceeded to down a drink. "I had to run. Security after me. They saw me snooping around. Wanted to question me."

"Snooping around what exactly?"

"I went to the store where I was supposed to meet Ito, he was super late. So, I started looking around, maybe I was at the wrong place I thought. Then, I stumbled across a crime scene. I got curious, so I got closer to investigate. It was Ito's two drinking buddies. Dead."

"And what about Ito?" One of them said with concern.

"No sign of him. They spotted me at that point so I had to run."

"Poodo!" A Rodian exclaimed as he slammed his fist on the table. "Now what!"

Before any of the others could answer, Anakin stepped in and slammed his lightsaber on the table. The Rodians all jumped in shock and grabbed their weapons under their clothing but didn't pull them out on seeing the lightsaber.

"Good evening gentlemen!" Anakin said with a slightly peppy tone. "Sorry to interrupt your evening out, but I'd like to know where this warehouse with a ship is!"

The original three Rodians glared at Anakin, while Greedo slowly began to back away and towards the exit.

One Rodian spoke, "You got nothing on us, Jedi! We're not telling you anything." He finished by spitting on Anakin's boot.

Anakin's gaze became darker and his tone shifted. "Normally I would just arrest slime like you and let security deal with you, but today," the hand not on his saber slowly began to close into a fist under the table and the Rodians’ eyes bulged as they each began to choke and grasp while invisible hands began to tighten around their throats, "I really don't have the time." Anakin then looked at the nearest Rodian with a death glare who was starting back at him terrified. "And I'm really not in the mood."

"Th-the warehouse." One of them managed to choke out between gasps. Anakin turned to him and released all three who each gasped for air.

"Tell me. Now."

* * *

Vos and Obi-Wan made their way quickly down several back alleys, taking twists and turns every 20 to 40 feet. It was like a maze back here in this part of the district. Most of the buildings had been abandoned over the years, bought, used, resold, and abandoned again. Eventually the problem had become so massive and widespread in this particular sector that the government had simply decided it was cheaper to just ignore them.

Kenobi shook his head as he knew all too well the amount of crime that was carried on and sheltered thanks to places like this.

Before he could contemplate their location further, the two masters came to a halt as Vos knelt down and closed his eyes. Kenobi was thankfully for the small rest, it seemed he had not run this continually for quite a while. He made a note to get back to general exercise at a gym when he had the chance. War kept one fit and in shape for the most part, but it didn't always cover everything.

Kenobi suddenly realized that Vos had taken a lot longer than previously, so he spoke up, "Is everything alright?"

Vos did not respond for a moment but finally said. "It's strange...the closer we get to this man...the harder it is for me to track him."

"That sounds very similar to the main problem we've been having with this one. Even when he was going through the temple surrounded by Jedi, it was like he was invisible to us. It seems he has a way to mask his presence in the Force, making him quite the dangerous adversary for us. We should proceed with caution if you believe we are close."

Vos stood up and nodded at Kenobi before running forward again.

* * *

Revan muttered to himself something about the stupidity of the design before him, before he finally managed to snap a particularly stubborn part into place. He then stood back from the hyperdrive with a deep breath. By a combination of the scans from his mask, the hyperdrive of the Ebon Hawk as a rough guide, and his own best guess at the very inefficient design of the ship, Revan believed he had done all he could.

Just then he heard a grunt followed by a slam, as a metallic crate was dropped in the ship’s cargo hold. It had been a repeated sound for the past 30 minutes and one that Revan had done his best to block out from his work. However, this one was followed by:

"It's all loaded!" Ito called from the main hold to Revan in the engine compartment.

Revan made his way out of the more cramped part of the ship and looked at the semi-organized collection of spice in front of him. He did not know the current exchange rate of spice on the black market, nor the quality of this spice, so he asked, "Ito?" The Rodian turned to look at him. "How much would you say all this spice is worth."

"Not really sure,” the Rodian admitted with a shrug, “but I think the boss said about 300,000 credits for the lot."

Revan smirked slightly at the estimate. More than enough to buy a simple ship, and keep his identity hidden. A good bargaining chip for where he was likely to end up.

“Alright Ito, go warm up the ship, and pray the hyperdrive doesn't blow us to pieces. I had to deactivate the main reactor to do some repairs, so the ship will take a few minutes to be ready to fly, but let me-"

Revan suddenly looked up and off in a random direction. Ito looked at him curiously and after a few seconds of silence said, "Let you know about…?"

Revan finally turned back to Ito, "Just get the ship ready to go." He then quickly marched back into the warehouse itself. Heading over to the main controls he opened up the roof hanger doors and began checking his equipment. "Seems the Jedi found me faster than I thought they would." He tightened the straps on his gauntlets and checked his hidden knife as well, before switching his mask back to it's tactical read out mode.

The roof doors made a bit of noise as they finally fully opened causing Revan to look up in the now almost night sky. "Time to find out what these Jedi are made of." He quickly pulled out a saber and slashed the controls to pieces, ensuring the roof would say open.

* * *

Vos and Kenobi rounded a final corner before they came to a larger warehouse that had no neighboring buildings attached to it. The two Jedi looked at each other and nodded, this was the place where the trail ended. The two Jedi masters quickly made their way to a side door, pulling out their sabers as they went.

Vos entered first with Kenobi close behind. The two crouched and made their way between selves of various tools and equipment. Finally they came into the main room of the warehouse and they stopped in their tracks. Bodies littered the room, an explosion had gone off on one side, and a ship sat with its cargo door open. Before the Jedi could fully process the scene in front of them, a distorted voice spoke, causing them to turn towards it.

"Greetings, master Jedi! And welcome." Revan was sitting on top of a pile of random crates and containers, most of them empty, but the purposely made pyramid stack reached about 15 feet in height. "I do apologize about the mess, but then again you didn't exactly give me much time to clean up before you got here."

"We do apologize for arrive so unannounced." Kenobi spoke as he stepped over the bodies near him and approached Revan as Vos did the same. "We will be sure to call next time before we arrive."

Revan smirked under his mask at the sass he had just received back from the bearded master. Maybe the Jedi had finally learned how to not shove so many sticks up their ass.

"Surrender terrorist!" Vos stated loudly as he got into an offensive stance below Revan, igniting his saber as he did so. "You've got nowhere to run and the might of the Republic and Jedi order are about to come crashing down on you!"

Revan's smile disappeared, quickly replaced by a frown as he looked down at Vos. And the stick goes right back in.

"I do have to agree with my partner," Kenobi spoke again, "you are about to be completely surrounded. If you surrender now, I promise no harm will come to you."

Revan said nothing for a moment before slowly standing to his feet, Vos gripped his saber ready for a fight, but Kenobi simply observed. "Well, that is a VERY compelling offer master Jedi. But before I give my answer, I am curious as to know your names."

Kenobi's eyebrow raised. He thought the request over a moment. The man was clearly stalling for time, but at this point with no backup so was Obi-Wan. "My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this is Quinlan Vos. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?"

So, the Jedi was also stalling for time. Perfect. "My name is Revan. Pleasure to meet you, master Kenobi." Revan bowed slightly towards the Jedi, which caused a surprised look to cross Obi-Wan's features. Vos however growled in frustration.

"He's just stalling Kenobi! And I don't intend to find out for what!" And with that, Vos proceeded to leap with the Force straight up towards Revan with his saber raised for an attack.

"Vos! No!" Kenobi shouted out a warning, but all too late.

Revan smirked under as mask as the Jedi had been easy to predict. He quickly rolled under Vos' jump, kicking a key crate in the middle of the pyramid as he did so. The breaking of the structure in such a way caused the entire stack to collapse before Vos could land, forcing him to crash into the pile of containers and be buried by the rest that fell behind him. Revan landed in front of the open ship and Kenobi turn towards him, igniting his saber.

Revan slowly stood and looked at Kenobi, "Such a shame, I was enjoying our conversation."

"So was I, but it seems all good things must come to an end."

Revan scoffed at the levels of irony the Jedi did not even know he had just made. He was about to respond when the pile of crates burst in several directions, as Quinlan Vos suddenly, and angrily, emerged from the pile. He locked eyes with Revan and charged him again.

Revan, in the blink of an eye, suddenly had a saber in his hand, and red clashed with green at the last possibly moment. This quick action and last second block surprised Vos, giving Revan an opening to kick him square in the chest and send him flying back into the pile of crates.

Kenobi was fast to join in the fight, striking at Revan the moment Vos was out of the way. Revan and Kenobi began to duel properly with one another other, each calculated and experienced fighters gave no ground.

Revan quickly recognized the more defensive and strategic style of the master he was fighting. There would be no easy tricks or catching him off guard. That meant eliminating the other one, and quickly.

Vos burst forth once again, leaping into the duel between Revan and Kenobi, and with the combined might of both masters they began to push Revan back from his position.

Revan's pure speed and finesse were almost terrifying to the two masters, as he expertly blocked, parried, and countered the two masters who relentlessly battered at him. A brilliant display of Red, Green, and Blue colors clashed in the warehouse for several minutes. Revan managed to lock the two blades of the Jedi with his one. He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind to Ito, who had been doing his best to stay out of sight in the ships cockpit.

The ship was almost ready, but Revan could feel other Jedi about to enter the warehouse. He had been spending so much energy on concealing himself in the Force for fear of being mobbed by every Jedi on the planet. Well, now it seemed there was no reason to hold back.

Revan opened his eyes, he pushed with the Force against the Jedi sending them both sliding backwards. Vos rushed him again, but this time, Revan lowered his saber, and right before the green blade made contact with him, Vos was struck by a massive blast of force lightning.

The pain was unlike anything Vos had felt. His skin instantly started to burn. He cried out in agony as electricity began to arch out of his body and random hit the walls of the building. Vos mustered up all the strength he had and tried to bring his saber down. Revan responded by lifting Vos up by the force Lightning itself and slamming him against the far wall of the warehouse, knocking him unconscious.

Revan turned to Kenobi. Kenobi stood, stunned in place. He could now sense Revan fully. The Force seemed to swirl around him, just being near the man caused Kenobi to feel the Force more potently and concentrated than he had in years. As he looked at Revan, he almost felt like he was staring into the heart of the Force itself. There was no doubt, Revan wasn't simply powerful. He was power.

At that moment Anakin and Adi ran into the building by the same means as Vos and Obi-Wan. They too stopped and they looked at Revan, experiencing similar revelations. Adi saw the smoking body of Vos slumped against the wall and ignited her saber. Anakin stared at Revan with absolute hatred in his eyes. Revan's head titled curiously as he examined the young Jedi. He was powerful, dangerously so, but he had no control, no discipline. Revan smirked slightly at an old memory that was prompted by these thoughts.

Anakin ignited his saber and moved to step forward, but Kenobi grabbed his arm and looked at him sternly before saying, "We take him together."

Anakin's metallic hand flinched a little at his master’s words, but he nodded and took his stance beside Kenobi, with Adi on the opposite side. "You're going to pay for what you've done today." Anakin said fiercely.

"You can't win this Revan." Kenobi stated.

Revan looked at the three Jedi lined up against him. He could almost see the bridge he had stood on, in a different life. "Well, master Jedi," Revan spoke as he slowly pulled another saber from under his cloak, which he ignited it, its purple blade crossing over the red one in a dark contrast. "let us find out if that is true."

Revan was tired of holding back, of sneaking around, of trying his best to not harm anyone unnecessarily. Now was his time to let off some steam.

He rushed them, using the Force to speed up his moments he came at the three Jedi in a blur of cloak, armor, and sabers. The three Jedi, even working in unison, began to find themselves losing ground. It was all they could do to simply defend themselves. Finally, communicating in the Force, they each jumped back, and combined a force blast directly at Revan. Revan countered with his own, which overcame the first and threw the Jedi back smashing into the wall.

Revan couldn't help but smile. It felt good to be back in control. He was about to leap after Adi when he stopped and titled his head back slightly over his shoulder. Time was up.

Anakin quickly got up ready for the next attack, then he noticed the same thing as Revan. "Looks like you’re done."

Revan glanced back at Anakin, he was going to be a problem, but Revan had overcome worse. Suddenly, the ship's engines roared to life, causing loose objects, tools, and smaller containers to go flying around the room. Revan looked directly at Anakin before saying, "Not today, it would seem."

Anakin growled in frustration and leapt at Revan. Revan blocked his blows several times before he deactivated a saber, grabbed Anakin's arm, and threw him on top of his master Kenobi who had just stood up, only to be knocked down again by Anakin's flying body.

The ship slowly began to rise out of the warehouse and Revan force jumped into the open cargo bay. He looked down at the warehouse as Fisto and Tiin burst into the room along with several clone troopers. Revan quickly made his way to the cockpit where Ito was flying.

"Wow! I mean, I have to say, fighting all those Jedi, that was impressive work."

"Thank you for the complement. But sadly Ito, while I was growing to like you, I have constantly been sensing your different plans to try and kill me the next chance you get. Unfortunately for you, I do not tolerate disloyalty." Before Ito could object his neck was snapped by an invisible force.

The Jedi on the ground ordered the clones to fire at the ship, but it had no effect. And as the cargo ship sped up into the night, just before its bay doors closed, a lifeless Rodian body fell from it and landed with a bloody splat amongst his other comrades.

* * *

Padmé was typing into her personal computer at her apartment. The cool air always seemed to help her work better at night. She had managed to get a hold of R2 and had him connect her to the central Senate servers remotely. Her political access along with a friend in the local security force who owed her several favors was allowing her to access the unofficial crime report on the bombing in the Chancellor's office earlier in the afternoon.

She shook her had as the image of that mask looked right at her, and memories of her being taking captive and flung through the air tried to invade her mind. She shivered slightly and pulled her blanket tightly around her, maybe she should close the windows.

She continued typing away looking at all the data that had been compiled, along with what distorted video footage from a not completely destroyed camera had picked up in the office. She was going through the case file line by line when she noticed a section on foreign dust that had been found at the scene. Why would this be a section of the report? When she went to open it she found it was redacted.

She squinted at the blacked lines in front of her. How could an unofficial report that was just compiled and uploaded this evening already have redacted information? Something wasn't right.

* * *

Palpatine looked out at his newly refurbished office window. It had been a long, tiring, and annoying day. Now, at the end, there was still more troubling news. He had been staring out the window for the past several minutes, focusing on what he had felt. It was the intruder from today, there was no doubt in Palpatine's mind. He was so powerful he had felt him across the district, glowing like a massive bonfire in the Force. Palpatine opened his eyes and sighed. The intruder was hidden again.

It seems the Jedi had failed to stop him from leaving the planet. That was a problem. But Palpatine had contingencies and backup plans upon backup plans. He would deal with this new threat as he had with all others before.

Turning, he made his way back to his desk. The file his forensics team had complied on the man was currently displayed on his monitor, along with an image of the attacker. The team notified him this afternoon the moment they had found dust form Korriban on the ground where the man had violently and suddenly appeared. He quickly blocked had this information from the report altogether. He did not want the Jedi getting wind of a potential Sith and thus causing them to become more paranoid than they were already becoming.

He looked over the information again as he had slowly been reading through it, when a private and heavily secured document appeared available for download, it bore the insignia of Darth Tyranus. Palpatine opened the file and waves upon waves of information flooded his screen and began scrolling onto his three large displays, there was too much today to be seen all at once. Palpatine smiled slightly, it seems his apprentice had been busy. But his smile quickly faded as he began to read some of the new text in front of him.

In a large image showing the picture of the man was a name. Palpatine looked at the security image, then back to the new picture before him. They were almost identical. The name Darth Revan began to burn itself into the Lord of the Sith's mind.


	7. Chapter 6 - Dangerous Dealings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors note:
> 
> Hello again everyone! I’m back! Despite what you may have thought or considered this story and I are not dead! I know, it’s fantastic, consider this your earliest and best Christmas present of all time! But in all seriousness, I want to apologize for the…9-ish months it has taken me to update this story, especially after the amazing hot streak I was on in getting these chapters out back in May. Life has been a HUGE roller coaster of ordeals, business, trials, and great blessings. I am on my way to finishing up my BA this semester and I will be entering into graduate school in January, so any thoughts, prayers, or supports would be much appreciated! The last bit of news update, the main reason I had to take a break from writing, and the best thing that has ever happened to me is that I got married! This woman is the complete love of my life and has been so helpful and supportive in keeping me motivated and going. In fact, you all can thank her for this newest chapter, I had been telling her how down I was that I hadn’t updated the story in so long, and she sat me down and got me to start writing again. I couldn’t ask for a better partner. Anyway, last thing is I do not know when I will be updating this story again. Obviously, life is crazy right now, just for me but for all of us. I do promise that this story is not abandoned, and I will be working on it whenever I have the time. I hope you are all still here to read it with me and that we can continue in this fun narrative together. Thank you for all of the support, feedback, and encouragement that has been sent my way over these past 9 months, I will be taking some time this week to go through and finally reply to the few reviews that have been piling up. I did not feel right reading and replying to any reviews or comments until I got you guys the next chapter. I hope you enjoy, please stay safe and healthy out there, and I look forward to hearing from you guys!
> 
> Much love,  
> -Francisguy

Chapter 6 – Dangerous Dealings

Clones moved hurriedly around the security center in the Jedi Temple. Consoles flashed and beeped with information as data was passed between a number of individuals, offices, and departments throughout the Temple and the surrounding areas. In the middle of the commotion stood several Jedi, all quietly and somberly reviewing a slowly scrolling text of information, along with multiple pictures attached at key intervals. The data moved slowly across the main circular console in the middle of the room and was projected as a flat document of information, so each reader could better see, the designated symbol of: ‘For official access by Jedi Council approval only’ was embedded on every part of the file being read.

Jedi knights and masters read the document in contemplative silence, each with a mixture of confusion and worry etched on their faces. The members in question were:

Anakin, Yoda, Windu, Plo-Koon, Obi-Wan, and Adi Gallia. The document slowly descended until it came to a final stop, showing a blurry image of several Jedi fighting on the bridge of some kind of a ship. The Jedi had their lightsabers ignited and were squaring off against a black-cloaked individual, wielding a red lightsaber, and wearing a red and black mask. Anakin's fist clenched slightly at the sight of the image, only Obi-Wan spared him a slight glance but the other Jedi did not notice.

"This doesn't make any sense." The young Jedi Knight stated in frustration. "How can any of this be true?"

"Patience apprentice, the Force often does not reveal things all at once." Master Plo Koon advised with an air of assurance and peace, but even his mind was reeling with questions that had begun to flood his thoughts since the conclusion of the data before them.

"While I fully agree with Master Plo's assertion, I do share Young Skywalker's skepticism on this matter. This may all be the work of our elusive Darth Sidious." Master Windu interjected between the two Jedi's comments.

"One has to wonder,” Master Adi finally said breaking her silence, "if this is the same Revan who helped save the republic, why would he choose to attack it now?"

"I am afraid that our records show no information on what happened to Revan after the Jedi Civil War." Obi-Wan answered her query, "All the Jedi archives mention is that he simply disappeared into the unknown regions. If this is the same man, his perspective on the Republic and Jedi could have drastically changed, especially if he ever discovered what the Jedi did to him by wiping his mind and using him to kill his former apprentice."

"I will admit," Anakin began, "I want to catch this guy more than anyone, but how could the Jedi destroy someone's entire mind and identity like that?"

"Sometimes, hard and often foolish decisions are made in war." Plo Koon answered the younger Jedi. "Do not be so quick to judge your predecessors while you sit with the benefit of hindsight on their choices."

The master’s words resonated in Anakin's mind, but as he stared at the screen in front of him, a part of him was not fully convinced.

"Do we know at least how he escaped off-planet?" Adi asked.

Windu quickly answered as he pulled up records from the Coruscant fleet, "It seems his ship managed to breach the blockade by mind tricking a clone officer into giving him clearance to get through the blockade, without being properly searched. The commanding admiral wanted to court marital the clone, but the council has countered the order as this ‘Revan’ is obviously powerful in the Force.

"Little we accomplish, through theory and speculation. The time for action, now, it is." Master Yoda stated definitively, bringing a moment of silence between the Jedi.

Master Windu stroked his chin in contemplation before speaking, "Master Yoda is correct, whether this character is the real Revan or not, our focus now should be finding and capturing him. With that in mind, we need to assemble a strike force to bring him in to stand trial for his crimes."

"I nominate Master Kenobi as head of this team." Plo spoke with practiced eloquence, "He is the master who has spent the most time hunting this man and has proven himself capable in doing so."

Kenobi looked slightly surprised by the nomination, but after a moment of thought, he nodded his head slowly. "I will take on this assignment, but until Master Vos recovers from his injuries it will be difficult to track him."

"Assistance in this matter, require you will. Capture Revan alone, you cannot." Yoda stated.

"I will join my master." Anakin spoke up confidently. "I have also spent some time tracking this man and I believe I can be of some benefit when it comes navigating the outer rim if he chooses to go there."

Kenobi was about to object when he was interrupted, "I am coming too." Kenobi turned to see a slight smirk on Master Gallia's face. "Can't let you go having all the fun Kenobi."

Kenobi looked between the two volunteers before sighing and shaking his head, "It seems my team is decided for me."

Windu nodded before speaking, "Then it is decided. We cannot afford to spare many Jedi due to the state of the war, you three will make up the entirety of this strike force, at least until other Jedi can be spared. Use any means or resources needed to bring this terrorist back to Coruscant for trial."

"Working together, your strongest ally, will be. Trust in the Force, guide you along your path, it will." Yoda gave a last encouragement to the Jedi before they each bowed to one another and slowly exited the room.

* * *

The soft hum of hyperspace, oxygen being recycled through various air filters, and the occasional beep or chirp of different computer systems mixed together in a subtle symphony of background noise that occupied the otherwise silent space of an old run-down cargo ship. A figure cloaked in black sat in the pilot seat of the dark and dusty cockpit, his dark grey eyes slowly scanning over the various instruments before him. The man’s face was slightly pale like it had not seen sunlight consistently in several weeks. A subtle five o’clock shadow had started to form a beard on the otherwise clean face. The stubble was a perfect black and matched the almost shoulder-length hair that was slicked back to stay out of the man’s face. A few scars could faintly be seen on his face as he slowly turned from looking at one end of the instruments to the others.

After a long period of silence, Revan finally leaned back and rubbed his eyes with his gloved hand, and let out a tired sigh. He had tried to get some rest after the close escape from the hands of the Jedi, but he had been interrupted by alerts coming from the ship’s computer system. He had spent the past several minutes looking over the status of the ship and soon realized that while he had managed to patch the hyperdrive as best he could in the time he had, the quick escape had clearly been too much for the old freighter and now the ship was slowly leaking fuel. It seems the former dark lord could never catch a break.

Revan took a moment to compose himself and think about his options. He certainly did not have enough fuel to make it to his intended destination, so he would need to stop somewhere to make proper repairs and more fuel, or just an entirely new ship. Revan placed his hands back on the console before him and pulled up the existing navigational charts that were in the system. Thankfully, the pirates did not seem interested in wiping their ship’s navigational memory every time they landed. 

Most of the planets were too far for the ship to reach with its current fuel supply. As his dark eyes slowly scrolled through the list before him, he stopped on one planet in particular: Florrum. Something clicked in his memory about one of the pirates mentioning needing to get this shipment of spice to that place. Part of Revan's mind rejected the idea of bringing the now stolen spice of dead smugglers to its intended destination as the recipients were no doubt familiar with the crew on Coruscant and would most likely want revenge when they realized what Revan had done. However, another part of his mind saw the opportunity to use the spice as a resource for his own benefit. The two different scenarios waged war between each other in the former Jedi's scarred mind as his tactical genius did its best to find which of the options was the most strategic.

Revan leaned away from the console and turned his head to look back at the cargo hold filled with various containers of spice. His eyes narrowed as he glanced around his surroundings, looking for some kind of obvious answer to his question. He slowly leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, placing his face in his hands as he did so. He hated to admit it, but he was tired, he needed rest. Revan slowly rubbed his temple to alleviate some of the tension in his head. He wished the others were here right now. Carth would have a plan, Mission would have a crafty solution no one had thought of, T-3 would have repaired the ship better, and Bastila...

Revan's eyes opened and his movements stopped. None of them were here. None of these thoughts were helpful. There was only moving forward. Revan leaned up in the chair, looked at the spice, then back to the console. He knew what he had to do.

* * *

The medical ward in the Jedi Temple beeped and hummed with the quiet rhythm of various kinds of machinery. The white walls, floors, and sheets on the two beds of one particular room seemed to all blend together in a clinical yet peaceful manner. Barriss and Ahsoka sat on the two beds both still attached to a few monitoring devices and machines. Both had almost completely recovered from their minor injuries and were beginning to reach a point where no one would have known they had recently been in a fight.

Ahsoka was doing her best to pass the time, but her mind was racing with questions and she was starting to feel restless being stuck in this room waiting for the final medical check to grant her release. Barriss, who had decided to pass the time through meditation, looked over at her padawan friend.

"What's troubling you Ahsoka?"

"Huh? What?" Ahsoka answered after a short pause, seemingly having just been pulled out of some deep thought. "Sorry, I got distracted. Why do you think something's bothering me?"

Barriss chuckled and shook her head, "This whole time I've been trying to meditate, your thoughts have been flying around the room like blaster bolts. It's made it very hard to concentrate I must say." Barriss explained with a slight smile. "But seriously, what's wrong?"

Ahsoka looked over at Barriss apologetically, "Sorry." She said, before lowering her gaze to in front of her, her face scrunching slightly as she tried to piece together her thoughts into words. "I just can't keep thinking about that fight."

"We got beaten by someone obviously much more powerful than us, there's nothing to be ashamed of in that. We did what we could to protect the archives." Barriss quickly interjected to try and reassure her friend.

"I know that." Ahsoka answered, "It's not that we lost that's bothering me, it's more...what happened with me before the fight. Like, how could I sense him when no one else in the temple could? And why did I feel the temple was going to be attacked before anyone else did? I feel like something changed in the Force yesterday, and I'm not sure what to do." Ahsoka finished by looking over at Barriss with questions and slight worry in her eyes. Before her friend could answer her, however, both females turned as they heard their door room open. Stepping through the door was with his usual smile was Anakin Skywalker. "Hello girls, sorry if I'm interrupting."

Barriss smiled slightly back and replied, "Hello Anakin, good to see you again. And no, we had just finished talking actually." She said, glancing at Ahsoka with a reassuring expression.

Ahsoka smiled as Anakin walked in the door, she was genuinely happy to see him and his presence soothed some of her anxiety away. She did notice the slight worry behind his eyes that couldn't be completely hidden. "Hello master, what brings you here?"

"Just wanted to check on the two bravest padawans in the order. You should be proud, you did your best to protect the temple, even if running in without backup is kind of a dumb move Snips." Anakin teased his padawan slightly as he made his last comment.

Ahsoka shrugged slightly and replied, "I learned it from you, master."

"How is the search for Revan going?" Barriss decided to chime in with her own curiosity.

Anakin's expression soured slightly, and a flash of anger crossed his face, but he quickly recovered and put on a more serious and neutral expression. “Unfortunately, Revan escaped the planet, so now we're just waiting to see if any leads or sightings come up from the Republic or others. The chancellor has already approved a sizable bounty on any information pertaining to Revan's location, and a larger one if he's brought in alive. Hopefully, that will give that terrorist almost nowhere to hide."

Ahsoka couldn't help but feel slightly angry at Anakin's news. She wasn't hoping for Revan to get away, but what had just been shared didn't sit right with her. "Do you really think it's fair to call him a terrorist?"

Anakin and Barriss both looked at Ahsoka with surprise in their eyes. "I think it's more than a fair label, based on everything he's done." Anakin answered strongly.

"But did he kill anyone innocent? Did he jeopardize the Republic in any significant way?" Ahsoka continued her line of questioning, "I'm not saying he hasn't broken the law, but calling what he's done terrorism seems really extreme."

"Enough!" Anakin said a bit harsher than he intended to, his inner anger almost boiling over as he remembered watching the security footage of Revan taking Padmé as a hostage. Seeing the padawans slightly worried expressions at his tone, he sighed and continued more peacefully, "I know you mean well Snips, but justice is being served here, and this is what needs to be done."

Ahsoka decided not to press further, though it was clear on her face she was not satisfied with the answers she had received. Breaking the moment of silence Barriss spoke once more, "Are you going to be one of the Jedi who goes looking for him?"

Anakin smirked slightly before answering, "Of course, who else would the council send on their most dangerous missions?" Anakin's communicator beeped at him as he finished his rhetorical question and he looked at his wrist for a moment before saying, "And that's my cue, got to go. Glad you two are doing well, and Snips, try to stay out of trouble while I'm gone, okay?" And with that, he quickly left before receiving an answer from his padawan.

"Always on the move." Ahsoka stated with a slight sigh.

"You know," Barriss began, "Your master might have a point. Revan did run from the Jedi and the Republic both. If he's not really that bad why run?"

Ahsoka mulled the question over in her mind, "I know. Anakin probably is right. I don't know how to explain it, but I just have this feeling there's more going on here than the council realizes. Almost like...they're missing something."

Barriss shrugged slightly at Ahsoka's comment, "Could be. Jedi aren't always right, and the council is not infallible."

Ahsoka's mind slowly drifted off as she thought about Revan's words about not following things blindly. Unfortunately, she was still left with more questions than answers.

* * *

The bright blue and white tunnel of hyperspace caused frequent moving shadows to appear and disappear across the interior of the cockpit. Revan sat in his chair, enjoying the few precious moments of peace and relative silence he had to himself. He had tried to spend the first part of his short trip meditating, but without the comforting presence of his link with Bastila, meditation brought nothing but troubled memories and stressful thoughts. Giving up on the chance to meditate and center himself in the Force, Revan decided to use his travel time to read through the information he had received from the Jedi archives. He was now sitting in the pilot’s seat with a datapad in one hand, while the other slowly scrolled through the information that glowed a dim blue directly into his grey eyes.

Some of what Revan had been reading disturbed him, but there were some bright spots. He was happy to see that most of his former crew had lived long and successful lives, each seemed to have carried out their instructions with relative success, leading to a stronger galaxy that had managed to withstand the Sith invasion. Bastila had even managed to become head of the Jedi council and their child, grandchild, and great-grandchild had all managed to go on and do the same. There was an undeniable sense of pride and satisfaction in knowing that the Jedi could never fully remove his legacy from their order. Revan chuckled slightly when he saw that Jolee had actually taken his advice and joined the reformed Jedi council. Juhani had taken up teaching with the Jedi after Revan left, but dismissed herself from the order in her twilight years, which wasn’t entirely surprising to Revan due to her background. Carth managed to climb his way through the ranks of the Republic military and eventually succeeded in his great ambition of becoming head admiral of the entire Republic Navy. Mission and Zaalbar went back to Kashyyyk to help with the growing issues of slavery. Revan frowned slightly when there was no substantial information on Canderous, only a small footnote of his participation and honoring in the battle of the Star Forge. Either the Jedi had chosen not to keep an eye on the Mandalorian after the Jedi Civil War, or Canderous had managed to keep his mission secret from the prying eyes of the galaxy. Regardless of which was the case, Revan would have to do some investigation of his own.

Just as the former Jedi was about to read on to the Great Galactic War, the console in front of him began to give off a warning noise. Revan quickly put down the datapad into the seat next to him and once again maned the controls of the ship. Pulling the accelerator down as gently as he could, the ship still gave an unpleasant jolt as it slowed back down to normal speed. Revan cursed in Mando under his breath as he heard the scraping of metal and saw a few pieces of the ship fly off in front of him. Shaking his head slightly at the absurdity of it all, Revan looked up to find the planet Florrum directly in front of his ship. Taking a deep breath, Revan willed the crumbling ship to begin making its way towards the surface of the planet.

As the ship slowly began its approach, one of the consoles began to blink with an indication, Revan was receiving a hail. Taking only a momentary pause, Revan quickly reached across the controls and answered the comms. “I am receiving you.” He stated simply and plainly so as not to give any tactical information away.

“You are entering territory belonging to the dread pirate Hondo Ohnaka.” A gruff and clearly annoyed voice spoke back in response. “Identify yourself or be blown to smithereens.”

Revan frowned slightly at the immediate threat. His first instinct was to squash whatever pitiful creature was speaking to him but taking a second glance at the state of his craft and its low levels of shields persuaded him otherwise. “I have an expected delivery from Coruscant. I apologize for the long delay, there were some…complications.”

“Hmmm,” the voice responded back, “alright, just hang on a moment.” It finished before the line went silent.

Revan’s jaw began to clench slightly as the seconds dragged on, he did not fancy his chances of being able to make it to the surface in one piece if he started to get fired upon.

Finally, after a tense several minutes, the line crackled to life once again. “Listen here, you’ve been granted access to land, proceed to the provided coordinates, and don’t try any funny business, or it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

Revan shook his head and sighed in frustration, “Understood, proceeding to the landing zone.” He called back before cutting the line off. He really needed to relieve some stress.

* * *

As the sun finished its zenith, on the never sleeping city world of Coruscant, Padmé Amidala sat in the main lounge of her loft penthouse. Her recently manicured fingers held a cup of recently brewed tea, lines of steam still coming off it as she blew on the hot liquid to try and cool it slightly. The sun seemed to glow more brightly in the luxurious space, as the former queen of Naboo had practically created her central living area to take advantage of the sunlight whenever possible. Two security guards stood just around the corner flanking either side of the main elevator doors, while a few handmaidens quietly moved around the senator as they prepared her afternoon lunch.

Padmé paid her surroundings little mind. Spread before her and scattered all over a long marble table were a number of datapads, digital files, and storage chips all culminating in a sizable pile of information. She cautiously took a sip of tea with one hand, while the other held one of the many data pads, this one displaying the most recent public news report on the attack that had occurred yesterday morning. Anakin had stopped by earlier to check on her and had also given her his summary of the non-public report of events, along with updates on the case, but she was still interested to see what the media had been told to feed the public. Her eyes narrowed as she reached the end of the article and saw no mention that Revan had actually left the planet, and while the news had not explicitly stated it, it was heavily implied that the culprit was still on Coruscant.

Padmé’s concentration was broken as she heard the familiar sound of her private security holo began to beep. She quickly answered the call and looked up to see the familiar figure of Gregar Typho, the head of her security detail.

“Senator Padmé,” He spoke with a quick bow, “sorry for the interruption, but it seems we have an unscheduled visitor-“

Before he could finish his report Padmé quickly interrupted him, “Oh that should be senator Organa arriving for our tea date. Would you mind letting him in please?” She finished with a quick smile.

Typho sighed and shook his head before speaking to someone out of view, “You know,” he began, “I really wish you would get in the habit of telling me your daily schedule, then I wouldn't have to keep getting surprised by things.”

“Come now Typho, you wouldn’t be earning your pay if I wasn’t able to keep you on your toes.” she said with a small smile as she took another sip of tea.

Typho simply chuckled and said, “I suppose that’s true; we’re sending him up now.”

“Thank you, captain.”

“At your service, ma’am.” And the call was terminated.

A moment later and an elevator ding was heard. Senator Organa stepped into view and was greeted with a warm smile. Organa smiled back before his eyes slowly began to scan all of the various items strew about before Padmé. “Good to see nothing keeps you from staying busy.” He commented before gesturing to the pile.

“Well, when the chancellor decides to give you a two-day mandatory stay home and rest order, your house would probably not look so different.” Padmé quickly countered back before taking another sip of tea.

Organa chuckled slightly before replying, “I guess you have me there.” A handmaiden quickly walked over and asked if she could get Organa some tea, to which he politely smiled and said, “I’m fine, thank you.” He then turned back to Padmé before continuing, “So, what's this very important meeting you made me promise I would come over for?”

Padmé did not immediately respond, but instead politely asked both her handmaidens and security guards to give them the room, which they quickly obliged her request.

At this, Organa raised a brow curiously at Padmé before taking a seat beside her once she gestured for him to sit down. “Alright, you have my attention, but I must say I don't like that look in your eye. It's the same one that always seems to happen right before you get into trouble.”

Padmé rolled her eyes at the comment before pulling a datapad up from under one particular stack, “Here, look at this.” She directed before handing Organa the pad.

Organa took it and his eyes began to scan the document displayed before him quickly. His eyes grew large and he asked in a slightly hushed tone, “How did you get the official crime scene report of the bombing from yesterday?”

Padmé smirked in response before saying, “It pays to have friends.”

Organa laughed slightly despite his initially worry and simply shook his head. He continued to read in silence for a moment before he stopped and leaned back slightly. “That's odd.” He said as the unfinished statement slowly faded from his lips.

“That's what I wanted to talk to you about!” Padmé replied eagerly, “This is the official security report, it's not even been released for public access yet, but already some information has been redacted.”

“That is very strange, to say the least,” Organa agreed with his friend, “...but maybe your, ‘friend,’ just got you a copy that the censors had already begun working for public release?”

Padmé shook her head, “I checked that the date and time of the server timestamps match up almost exactly with the time I received this document. That means this hit the local security server WITH redacted information, meaning…“

She paused slightly to give Organa the space to fill in the conclusion, which he did: “Someone got access to the official report before it went to local security and removed information they didn't want anyone to see...not just the public.”

Padmé began to nod enthusiastically, “What's doubly strange is that my friend has been forwarding me any relevant chatter from inside local security, no one in their archive team is talking about this, so this wasn't an outside force, this was someone from the inside who had enough power and position to make people turn a blind eye. This could lead to something, I know it!”

Bail tapped the side of the datapad with a finger thoughtfully for a few moments before slowly handing it back to Padmé, “Look, I know you have a knack for digging up things others would rather leave buried, but something like this...I don't know if this is really enough to warrant one of your famous investigations.” He slowly got up from the shared couch, “Thank you senator for a wonderful discussion, but unfortunately, I have a meeting to get to. I hope to see you back at the Senate soon. Don’t forget to actually get some rest on your mandatory rest time.”

As he turned to leave, he stopped when Padmé spoke, “Bail, please... You know I'm on to something, I don't get this focused when it's nothing.”

Bail looked her in the eyes for several moments before taking a deep breath and saying, “Okay. What do you need me to do?”

Padmé slowly began to smile again.

* * *

Revan cursed as the cockpit began to blare with warnings and the ship’s instruments spiraled into the unreadable. The ship shook violently as it burned its way through the atmosphere, the shields having given out only a few minutes into the descent, leaving the hull vulnerable and pieces of it literally flying off into the atmosphere. Revan wrestled for control of the ship and forced the hunk of metal to stay on course, muttering to himself about how the smuggler’s mechanic had received too quick of a death.

Finally, after several moments, the cloud cover broke and the ship began to stabilize itself. Revan left out a sigh of relief as his grip loosened on the controls. He took a moment to examine the mostly empty landscape before him, immediately understanding why pirates would choose to hide out in a remote and uncared for planet. His gaze eventually fell on a well-fortified, but crudely set up base in the back of a small canyon. Revan considered that it wasn’t a terrible setup, with a decently defensible location, but surely there must be better places to have a less obvious and easily surmountable base. If any substantial or legitimate military force wanted to conquer this place they easily could. It would be much better to be hidden in a mountain or cave somewhere, but honestly, what did he expect from pirates?

Revan steered the ship towards the base, and after only a few minutes of flying, brought the vessel down with a hard thud as one of the landing gear failed to deploy, resulting in the ship leaning and resting on its side.

Revan looked out the viewport and examined the outside, noting the general causal and haphazard nature of the layout, but appearances could always be deceiving, and one should never underestimate pirates. Revan also noticed a large number of pirates that were slowly gathering around the ship. Their obvious desire to take whatever was on the ship for their own individual profits was very clear in the Force. Revan huffed to himself, a whole group of self-serving individuals...one wonders how they've managed to accomplish anything as a group, let alone stay alive this long.

Revan decided it was time to greet his hosts and made his way towards the back of the ship. As the cargo bay doors slowly opened, Revan stood with his arms crossed and observed the rabble below him. Many of them took steps back or grabbed onto their pistols when they saw his intimidating masked figure. His presence caused quite a stir in the camp and soon the entire outside area was either looking at him or whispering to one another. Eventually, as Revan stood and scanned the group before him, one Weequay came up to speak with him.

“Welcome to Florrum, mister ah…” The pirate did not finish his sentence as he wanted for the masked figure to identify himself.

After a moment of consideration, Revan finally responded, “Revan.” He reasoned because now that the Jedi and Republic knew his name, there was not much sense in trying to hide it from this lot.

“Mister Revan.” The pirate finished his welcome with a dramatic flourish, and not so subtly eyed the containers of spice behind Revan. “My name is Sabo. I do have to ask if you don’t mind the intrusion, but I believe this shipment of spice you’re carrying often comes from some other friends of ours…”

Revan glanced behind his mask at the group of pirates below the ship, most of them tensely gripping their blasters. “Unfortunately, your friends on Coruscant will no longer be able to deliver your spice as they all decided to take…an early retirement, shall we say.” Sabo grimaced slightly at Revan’s implied meaning, and several pirates stepped forward in anger. “But” Revan continued, “I am sure we can come to some kind of, arrangement.”

Sabo’s frown quickly turned into a smile and he gestured for the others to back down. “Now that’s the kind of talk we like to hear around these parts!” He said enthusiastically, “Anyway, before we get into the business side of things sir, there’s someone who would like to have a word with you if you wouldn’t mind following me…”

“Lead the way.” Revan replied simply.

Sabo smiled and turned, leaning Revan towards the main entrance.

Revan rolled his eyes as the pirates quickly began to run into the ship and start taking whatever they could get their hands on, not even waiting for him to be out of view first.

Revan was lead through several dark and dimly lit halls, before finally entering into the noisy and smoke-filled center room of the pirate base. Sabo led him past several haphazardly set up tables, benches, and other random pieces of furniture. Several tables were positioned specifically for twi'leks dancers, who were currently being jeered at by different pirates, while female Weequay moved around the room handing out drinks, though it seemed everyone already had a cup in hand. ‘It seems some things never change, even in 4,000 years of galactic history’ Revan thought to himself.

As the pair made their way through the active space, half of the room eyed Revan with suspicion when the other half was too drunk or preoccupied to notice him. The stares, thoughts, and emotions were all clearly be felt by Revan in the Force and most of them were not friendly, to say the least.

Eventually, Sabo led Revan to the largest table near the back, where several pirates were gathered, clearly enjoying themselves. At their center was a more fashionably dressed Weequay with tinted glasses and a red jacket to further make him stand out from the crowd. ‘The boss then,’ Revan noted.

The head Weequay was laughing and telling a tale in some grandiose manner when he noticed Revan and Sabo approach and stopped himself. “Well well well, look what we have here boys! A guest! Come, come, someone get this man a drink! After all, he has brought one of our long-awaited shipments all the way from Coruscant and must be thirsty from such a long journey.

Revan's brow raised slightly as he was surprised by how much this boss already knew. Despite his carefree appearance, he must stay well informed of whatever goes on in his base, reinforcing Revan's caution to not let his guard down.

A female Weequay approached the group with a tray of drinks, quickly offering one to Revan, but he simply put a hand up without looking at her. The waitress, obviously intimidated, immediately took the out and walked away quickly.

The boss frowned slightly at Revan's refusal but quickly turned to Sabo who proceeds to fill him in on who Revan is and that their friends on Coruscant are no more.

“Well, that is unfortunate, but! These things do happen! And, what use is staying in the past, I say. The future is where profits are to be made! But I'm getting ahead of the plot, I haven't even introduced myself, how rude of me! My name is Hondo Ohnaka, and this,” He says as he wildly gestures around the room, “is my home! So, now that introductions are out of the way, and you clearly are not in the mood for refreshments, at the moment, let's get down to business, eh? So, Mr. uh...Revan, was it? Since you went to the trouble of coming all the way here, I must ask, what can I do for you?”

Revan waited a moment before replying “A new ship.”

Hondo chuckled slightly at his answer, “Yes, I heard the boys watching your approach. We weren't even sure you were going to make it to the base in one piece. Well, I'll tell you what, why don't you stay here one night and in the morning, we can discuss some… business arrangements.” Hondo leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the table, “As the way I see it, I am going to need some extra compensation for you killing my good friends on Coruscant.” He finished his proposal with a slow sip of his drink.

Sabo and the other pirates nearby turned to look at Revan expectantly, most of them already having their hands on their blasters.

Revan crossed his arms and stood looking at Hondo for several moments, calculating his next move. After a lengthy silence, he spoke, “No deal. I want a ship now or you can forget about getting your spice.”

Hondo frowned before leaning forward to glare slightly at the masked figure before him. He then began to tap his fingers slowly on the table and his tone lost its playful touch, “You know... Mr. Revan, I was hoping we could be more, how do you say? Diplomatic about all this, but then you have to go around and start making these kinds of forceful demands and reject my hospitality!”

At this point, several pirates around the room begin to slowly get up from their seats and draw their blasters. Revan did not move to react in any way.

“I am sorry to say my friend,” Hondo continued, “but you're really in no position to bargain at this point. My men have already acquired the spice, but on top of that,” Hondo then pulled out a small holocommunicator which showed a display of Revan’s wanted poster, “It seems the Republic have put quite a large bounty on bringing you in alive…” He said this last part with a proud smirk, “But! Let it never be said that I am not first and foremost a businessman, so, if you have a better offer than the one sitting in front of me, I would love to hear it!” Hondo smiled at Revan as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his hands behind his head.

Revan now knew why this group had ever had a successful day in their lives. The entire operation rested on this one alien's shoulders, and he had to admit, Revan was impressed. Hondo certainly looked and acted like a carefree fool, but he was clearly anything but, in fact, Hondo may just be one of the most dangerous individuals in the galaxy Revan had yet to encounter.

After several moments of silence, as Revan contemplated his observations, Hondo finally spoke with a hint of frustration, “Well? Come now I do have other matters to deal with today.”

“I have a better offer,” Revan finally spoke, causing Hondo to smile again, “Your lives.”

There was a moment of tension as the whole room seemed to now be focused on Revan, even the dancers and musicians stopped at his words which seemed to echo with a deadly seriousness over the room. Hondo, who seemed to be the only one not gripped by a small level of fear began to laugh, which slowly caused the tension to die down, and the room slowly filled with laughter in agreement with Hondo. “Oh, my friend,” Hondo shook his head and slowly stood up, “I admire the tenacity and confidence, but surely you must see the situation for what it is!” He held his arms up as the pirates fully pointed their blasters at Revan from all sides and some began to move toward him on his sides and behind him, “You are surrounded, so, I suggest you come quietly and this can all be settled nice and easily, hmmm?”

Revan tilted his head slightly and stared back at Hondo, slowly uncrossing his arms, and lowering them to his sides. He spoke again with the same deadly conviction as before, “Very well. If that's what you want.”

Hondo smiled and nodded to Sabo who quickly pulled out a pair of handcuffs and moved towards Revan. When he was about a foot away Revan suddenly called two sabers out of his robes directly into his hands and ignited them.

The smile on Hondo's face disappeared as he yelled out: “Jedi!” but it was too late. Sabo was already cut in half by one saber, as an invisible force grabbed the next closest pirate, and flung him directly onto the other waiting saber. The room erupted into chaos as blaster fire began to go off in every direction. Revan used the force to begin sprinting around the room, cutting off limbs, legs, heads, and torsos with every swing. He was like a swirling vortex of death that moved through the room almost too fast for the eye to keep up with, the flashing colors of red and purple sabers leaving a trail of devastation behind them. The number of pirates in the room began to drop exponentially, some not even managing to draw or fire their blasters in time before a saber found its way into or across them, killing them instantly. The pirates who did get to fire soon regretted it, as any shot that did somehow manage to not miss Revan, was instantly and expertly directly straight back into their chest or head. Revan called on the Force to enhance his movements, running, leaping, and dodging between tables, pillars, and pirates, choosing not to rely completely on his sabers for full offense and defense. He was tired of having to hold back for so long on Coruscant, and it felt good and powerful to be fully immersed in the Force again.

Hondo stood stunned as he watched his pirates get massacred in front of him. He had dealt with Jedi and Sith before, but nothing like this. Revan was something else entirely and for one of the few moments in his entire life, Hondo began to feel fear creep up his spine. His thoughts were interrupted as he was pulled behind the now overturned main table by one of his guards and he quickly pulled out his communicator and shouted at his men to keep shooting Revan. Hondo active his comms and called in for reinforcements into the main hall, as one pirate beside him stood up, took a shot, and a moment later fell backward dead with a smoking blaster wound set perfectly between his eyes. Hondo yelled again into the communicator for his men to hurry up!

Revan stabbed two more pirates straight through their chests and then used the Force to aim their blasters at two others who had just stood up from cover and shoot, both bolts embedding themselves in their ally’s skulls. Revan smiled slightly under his mask at how easy this was going to be when something in the Force drew his attention. He slowly stood up straight and looked at the main entrance before suddenly there was a large explosion that tore a large hole where the small doorway had just been. Revan moved his arm up slightly to protect himself from the scattered derby and then lowered it as the dust slowly settled. Coming out of the cloud of destruction were three large tanks tightly packed together. They were each manned by a pirate on the main open top gun, and they all began to laugh confidently as they aimed their cannons down at Revan. Revan stood confidently, not moving at all, he then put one of his sabers away, and taking a deep breath, he slowly raised one hand into the air in a fist.

The pirates looked at each other confused, wondering if he was trying to surrender. One of them shrugged and was about to order the others to fire when he was cut off. Suddenly the air around Revan began to swirl slightly, whipping his cloak around him, then small sparks of electricity randomly began to shoot off around the room from the area surrounding his hand. The whole room began to feel like the air was becoming statically charged, and one pirate even got shocked harshly as he placed his hand on some metal on the wall. The pirates in the tanks shook themselves from their stupor and pressed down on their gun’s triggers. Before the triggers were fully pressed, Revan opened his first and a massive burst of Force Lightning poured out from his raised hand and split into three separate massive arcs that slammed into each of the tanks. The lightning was so powerful and massive that random bolts started to break off the main arcs and fly off Revan's hand, randomly striking around the room, causing the few pirates remaining to duck for cover. The pirates in the tanks could only scream in pain as their skin, blood and organs began to boil and smoke as they burned from the pure energy which relentlessly poured into them. The tanks started to shake violently from the energy, and sparks of wiring and internal components began to flash randomly off the tanks as they were quickly and devastatingly destroyed by the Force Storm. Soon the pirates’ screams faded as they died from the massive amounts of lightning. The tanks quickly reached their limited and exploded in massive fireballs that sent furniture flying across the room and the hole in the wall to quadruple in size.

Revan, however, was unmoved, like a mountain defiantly coming up out of the ocean. The blast seemed to roll over him, blowing his cloak and robes backward wildly, but not moving him an inch. He slowly lowered his hand and took several deep breaths to steady himself, but not loud enough that anyone would hear it. He remained there for quite a while, simply looking at the smoldering fire and wreckage that used to be three tanks. He couldn't help but feel impressed with himself.

Finally, he heard a familiar voice call out from the back of the room, “Stop! Stop! Everyone! Put your weapons down! “Hondo said as he came from around his cover holding his blaster and empty hand well above his head.” Revan turned and examined Hondo, choosing intentionally to leave one of his sabers on. Hondo cautiously approached Revan and said, “It seems you have made your point Mr. Revan. So please, let us not us have any more senseless bloodshed today. As I said, I am a businessman, and this current exchange is not profitable for either of us.” He accented his intention to have peace by slowly lowering his gun to the floor and kicking it towards Revan. “We are clearly at your mercy Jedi, or Sith, or whatever you are. So, what can I, and my humble crew, do for you?”

Revan smirked slightly at how quickly Hondo adapted to every situation, clearly never missing a beat, the Jedi could benefit from that kind of thinking he mused to himself. He turned his saber off and put it back inside his cloak before answering, “As I said, I need a ship, and I was going to give you that spice and my old ship for free if only for the scrap it could give you.” Hondo’s smile slowly began to make its way onto his face as he heard this news, “But now,” Hondo’s smile immediately turned into a frown, “I think I’ll be needing about… 50,000 credits from you, as well as a brand new ship.”

Hondo scoffed before saying, “50,000?! You know that’s most of the worth of that shipment and a new ship is worth a considerable amount already and-“ Revan simply tilted his head as if to say, ‘Do you really want to test me?’ Hondo, seeing the implied question, stopped his rant and put his hands up, "Alright, alright! Like I said, you've made your point. You know,” Hondo began with a chuckle, “I think I might like you, Mr. Revan. You might drive a hard bargain, but you are surprisingly simple to deal with all things considered."

“Trust me Hondo, when you have lived through everything I have, keeping things simple is a refreshing state to be in, and a luxury I often am not afforded.”

Hondo smiled at this and said, “Yes, I get what you mean... Well! Now that all this unpleasantry is behind us, let me show you to your ship then. We have a few already fueled up and ready to go, and I will have one of my men bring you your credits.

Revan simply nodded and said, “Lead the way.”

* * *

A 3-way holocommunications call is in progress. The one side of the call shows Jedi Masters Yoda, Mace Windu, Plo Koon, Adi Gallia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, along with Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, all of whom stood around a holo-terminal in the Jedi Temple hangar. Another side of the call was Chancellor Palpatine, sitting back in his newly fixed primary office. The last line of the call belonged to a certain notorious pirate.

“Wait, hang on a minute. Are we really going to trust information from the guy who kidnapped up and tried to hold us for ransom? Does no one else see a problem with this?” Anakin spoke up to all members of the call.

“For once, I must agree with my apprentice on this one.” Obi-Wan added into the conversation.

Palpatine spoke up from his end of the communication, “I understand your reservations my friends, and while I was perfectly content to ignore this low-life pirate's obvious game, some of your other masters thought it prudent to hear him out when they learned of his transmission.” Palpatine couldn't help but let out a small amount of frustration in the back end of his voice out as he finished.

“Hondo did manage to capture Count Dooku, and he did not lie to us about holding him at their base on Florrum.” Master Adi countered.

“Unwise, it would be, to turn away the council of another, before hearing that which they have to say.” Yoda stated, as a way of ending the argument.

“Very well, what does the infamous Pirate have to say for himself?” Plo finally moved the conversation forward, growing tired of the debate.

Hondo cleared his throat and stood up straight, “Well, gentlemen, and lady,” he said bowing slightly to Audi who simply crossed her arms. “I have come to you today to humbly offer my services to the great Republic and Jedi.” He accented with another bow and dramatic flourish of his hand.

“How many credits do you want?” Audi asked bluntly.

“Ah, I knew I would like you,” Hondo said with a smile, “So since it's straight to business then? Very well, here is my offer, the location of your recently escaped terrorist friend...” All eyes slightly widened at this possible lead, but waited for Hondo to name his price, “for free.”

There was a moment of silence as the group looked at Hondo all very surprised. “I think I might be going crazy, did the Hondo Ohnaka, just offer to give something away for free?” Anakin asked in obvious disbelief.

“I'm afraid I might be entering into that delirium with you Anakin, I heard it too.” Obi-Wan quipped.

“Hardy har har! Yes, let's all laugh at this situation and waste everyone's time! That sounds like a great plan to me.” Hondo crossed his arms slightly annoyed.

“What's the catch?” Windu broke his silence.

Hondo dramatically put a hand to his chest and gasped, "Oh! Me? A catch? I am insulted! How could you accuse a simple man like myself, of double-crossing anyone?" The Jedi and even chancellor all turned to glare slightly at the pirate. Hondo looked around at all the different faces trying to play innocent when he finally sighed and said, “Alright, the truth is...if you send some Jedi after this man, you'll be paying me back simply by doing it.”

“What do you mean by that?” Windu asked.

“Let's just say your terrorist friend and I had a bit of a... crossing of paths, shall you say, and I would very much never like to cross paths with him again. So, if you are able to remove him from the galaxy for me, I will consider us even on the payment front!”

The Jedi all looked at each other skeptically before Anakin spoke again, “How do you even know where he is?”

“Ah-ha, good question master Jedi.” He then pulled out a datapad from his jacket, “Our mutual acquaintance demanded one of our ships and while I was less than happy to oblige, I did give him one of our... special ships.” He said with a mischievous smile, “All the data on the ship is sent directly back to me, including-“

“It’s navigational inputs,” Plo stated before Hondo could finish his explanation.

“Hmmm. Not a bad trick, even for a pirate.” Obi-Wan admitted.

“So where is he headed? Adi asked firmly.

Hondo sighed slightly before he answered, “Well since we are all such good friends now, I guess I can tell you. He is headed…” he looked down and double-checked the information, “to Tatooine.”

* * *

As the call finally ended Palpatine leaned back in his chair, his fingers interlaced and brought up to his face as he pondered his options for several moments. He had expected a man like Revan to stay low and not draw attention to himself, being in such an unknown environment, and as tactically minded as the historical data had described him. Perhaps this wasn't the Revan of legends, but an imposter inspired by him. It might answer why he keeps getting found so quickly. It seemed there was only one way to test this new hypothesis.

Pulling up his display Palpatine typed in a code on the console, before a retinal scanner appeared and verified his identity. His screen then changed to a black and red display with an entirely different selection of information than what had previously appeared. He began typing a simple but important message: ‘Revan has been spotted. Headed to Tatooine. Send Ventress.’

* * *

The Jedi looked at each other once the communication had ended. “Quickly, you should go, to Tatooine, several steps behind our target, we already are.” Yoda spoke to the group with authority in his voice.

Windu added, “We will notify any Republic fleets in that area, but as you are entering Hutt space if you need reinforcements, they will likely only be able to offer you an exit.”

Kenobi answered, “We understand masters. We will report in as soon as we confirm or deny Hondo's information.”

The group was about to bow and leave when they all heard a "Wait up!" The Jedis turned and Anakin spoke and moved forward towards the newcomer, "Snips?"

Ahsoka jogged over to the group, a minor scar on her cheek as the only indication she had ever been in a fight recently. She looked her usual determined self. “Sorry I'm late, they discharged me from the medical ward, and I heard the strike team was heading out on a new lead.”

“Possible, lead.” Anakin corrected with a slight scolding tone, “And you aren't part of the strike force, what are you doing here?”

“It's obvious Skywalker, she's taking after you and wants to join where there might be some danger,” Adi said with a slight bit of teasing which the other Jedi smiled at.

Ahsoka lowered her head sheepishly and said, “I'm sorry master, but I really feel like I should come on this mission…”

“I do think this is the kind of assignment for a Padawan.” Windu spoke up, “Now come along Ahsoka, I'm sure your master will be fine without you.”

The group began to move as the matter looked settled and they began to turn away when Ahsoka blurted out, “Wait!” causing the Jedi to again turn back towards her “...there's something you should know.”

Plo moved forward and spoke, “Go on Ahsoka, we're listening.”

Ahsoka nervously began to rub her arm before she finally said, “I think I can sense Revan even when he's making his presence in the Force.”

The Jedi all looked at her with a mixture of confusion, worry, and skepticism. Seeing their disbelief, she spoke louder and stood up straighter, “It’s true! Why do you think Barriss and I came across him first? We weren't just wandering the archives aimlessly. I could feel him in the library when clearly no one else in the temple could.”

The Jedi all began to look at each other unsure of what to do, Ahsoka looked at her master pleading with him to believe her, he sighed and began to speak, “Ahsoka, this is some pretty big information to suddenly be dropped on us, and I don't think it's a good idea-“

But before he could finish Plo suddenly put his hand on Ahsoka's shoulder and cut him off, “-To leave her behind.” The group looked at Plo surprised, before he continued looking down into Ahsoka's eyes, “If Ahsoka can sense Revan when none of us can, it would be a huge waste of an advantage to not bring her, and with how many hiding places there are on Tatooine, she may be our only chance of finding him.”

Ahsoka felt surprised that Plo was standing up for her, and a little hurt that Anakin didn't take her side, but before she could thank her former master, Adi spoke up, “Master Plo has a point. Now, if this is all settled, let's go already! Revan is probably halfway to Tatooine by now!” She said as she moved towards the waiting ship.

Obi-Wan looked at Anakin and shrugged before saying, “Welcome aboard Ahsoka Tano. Glad to have you as part of the team.” and he too went to the ship.

Anakin looked at Ahsoka and sighed, obviously overruled before saying, “Alright then. You're on the team but try not to fall behind Snips.”

Ahsoka smiled slightly and went to follow Anakin when she turned to look at Plo, “Master I-“

Before she can thank him, Plo simply holds up his hand and says, “There's no need Ahsoka, just promise me that you will be safe. I fear this mission may be more dangerous than we realize.”

Ahsoka smiled, nodded, and bowed deeply to Plo, “I promise, master.”

Plo bowed back slightly before saying, “May the force be with you.”

Ahsoka smiled once more, then, hearing Anakin calling for her, she quickly turned and ran towards the ship.

Plo watched the ship until the moment it disappeared into the atmosphere. Quietly he breathed a heavy sigh. It never got easier, seeing them leave...


	8. Chapter 7 - Hunted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hello everyone! I hope this chapter finds you well, and Merry Late Christmas, Happy Holidays, and warm greetings to you and whatever holiday is your chosen spice of life! I had wanted to post this chapter on actual Christmas day as my gift to all of you, but my schedule turned out to be far busier than I could have anticipated haha! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I know it ends on a small cliff-hanger, and I am sorry to say that school is starting back for me on the 11th so I will probably not get the next chapter done until at least a month from now, but I hope you can all wait until then! For now, I hope you are all doing well, staying safe, and you have a wonderful New Year. And congrats to each of us for surviving 2020!
> 
> Your humble author,  
> -Francisguy
> 
> A/N (Edit): If you received a notification informing you that this chapter has been replaced or re-uploaded that is because within 1 hour of this chapter being up I had 3 different reviewers/comments informing me that a certain alien within this chapter is a different race than the one I wrote down. While I will honestly say this was a little annoying, I do appreciate how quickly many of you read this chapter and I do truly appreciate those of you who took the time to inform me about this mistake. I do my absolute best to look-up/double-check all of the names, locations, items, and correct spellings, but I do often make mistakes (I even think some of earlier chapters still have a few names misspelled, haha). Regardless, I hope you still enjoy, and if there are any other corrections that are needed please feel free to let me know!

Chapter 7 – Hunted

Revan sat in the middle of a SoroSuub Corporation Yacht cockpit; the low hum of hyperspace created a peaceful ambiance. The former Jedi Knight was in a traditional meditation pose, his eyes closed in quiet concentration. He had spent the majority of his trip going over the most relevant information he had gathered from the Jedi Temple and now possessed a basic understanding of what had happened after his jump through time, the fate of most of his companions, and a brief overview of the past 4,000 years of galactic history. The current Galactic Civil War was of great interest to the former Sith Lord, and he couldn't help but find some measure of amusement in seeing almost half of the galaxy in outright rejection of the Republic; something he could somewhat personally identify with. His own relationship with the Republic was...complicated, to say the least. There was still more to learn and much more to study, but what he had learned would suffice for now.

Upon completion of his reading, a wave of held off exhaustion had swept over Revan. His mind was still racing with questions and unsolved issues, but his body was beginning to protest and demand some rest. Taking a look at the navigation system's remaining time to Tatooine, it did not seem to facilitate the kind of rest Revan was in need of, so he opted instead for an old military trick he had created for his Jedi during the Mandalorian War. Meditate within the Force and use it to accelerate your body's natural healing process, which mimics the effect of actually getting sleep. This did not fully negate the need for actual rest, the Force can only do so much to compensate for one's physical needs, but this trick did allow Revan and his followers to go days or weeks at a time without actually sleeping and thus keeping their response times as high as possible.

Unfortunately for Revan, the meditation was not as restful as he had hoped. Upon entering into a meditative state, he immediately felt the weight of the war come upon him. While Revan was not unfamiliar with war, it had been some time since he experienced the effects of one within the Force. Additionally, he had never experienced a war on this scale and its effect on the Force was staggering. The whole galaxy seemed to be shrouded in the dark side, no doubt from the war itself, but there was something else, something deeper perpetuating this almost impenetrable shadow. The Force itself also seemed weaker somehow. There was a distinct lack of trained Force users that could be felt, and despite the large veil of darkness the only significant presence in the Force was that of the Jedi Order. This left Revan with a very disturbing question that began to turn his stomach as certain memories whispered on the edge of his fractured mind: Where were the Sith?

Taking a deep breath, Revan centered himself. These questions would have to wait until he had more time to reflect. As Revan slowly allowed the Force to concentrate on his physical form and mind, something caught his attention. When he had arrived on Coruscant, Revan had attempted to reach out to Bastila through their bond in the Force. Instead of feeling her familiar and calming presence, Revan had felt nothing, a hollow emptiness. In the moment, he had willed himself to look for answers, and not dwell on her absence, which he found in the Jedi Temple. However, now that he had taken a moment to dwell in the Force longer, he noticed something incredibly subtle, a sensation so small he might have never sensed it. There was something else, someone else, there. Barely in the back of his mind and deep within that empty void left by the Force bond was another presence.

Before Revan could fully dive into that mental cavern, the navi-computer began to beep its standard alarm to alert the pilot that the hyperdrive would need to be disengaged soon. Revan growled slightly as his eyes sprang open on instinct, his years of military, Jedi, and Mandalorian training tensed his body to be ready to react to the outside stimuli. Revan took a moment to consider trying to meditate again and find the source of that presence but glancing at the navi-computer and seeing he had arrived at his destination he decided it would have to wait. He sighed as he stretched and stood up to move into the pilot's chair. His list of "things that would have to wait" was growing uncomfortably long.

Taking hold of the ship's controls with practiced assurance, Revan smiled slightly to himself as he looked over the console before him and remembered the look on Hondo's face when he demanded this ship instead of the others that were presented to him. While the former general had never had the chance to fly in a luxury civilian ship, Revan reasoned that while the ship might attract more attention from pirates and petty criminals, it would make any encounters with legitimate military or militia much easier. Plus, a part of him had to admit that he always wanted to own a luxury ship. That whole experience with the pirates had been interesting, to say the least, and Revan suspected that that would not be the last time he saw Hondo Ohnaka.

Revan reached across the control panel and with several quick switch flicks and button presses the familiar jolt of coming out from hyperspace caused him to shift slightly in his seat. Revan's eyes squinted as he looked up to see the bight view of Tatooine, as its gleaming sand quickly filled the entire horizon. A few different emotions made their way through Revan's mind as he looked down at the approaching planet. He had never liked Tatooine, the poverty, the crime, and don't get him started on the sand! Coarse, rough, getting everywhere, it would take him days to get all of it out of his clothing. But Tatooine had also been a place he could rely on, strange as it might seem. No matter what else might change in the galaxy, Tatooine would never change, and that very quality is why he had chosen it...

Before he could reflect further, the console in front of him began to indicate that he was being hailed by the surface below. The transmission carried the Hutt Cartel insignia. Revan scoffed slightly at this obvious intimidation technique but reached over and answered the call none-the-less.

"Go ahead." He said shortly so as to gain more information without giving any away.

A bored alien answered after a brief pause of silence. "Unidentified vessel, you are entering Hutt controlled space. State your business and your intended landing zone."

Revan raised a brow slightly at this request. It would seem that the Hutts had taken a more active role in tracking the ships coming in and out of their planet. Perhaps the war had made them more cautious than in previous times. Thinking for a moment Revan answered, "Ground control, I am here on personal business. Intended destination is Anchorhead."

There was a long silence, one that made Revan slowly flex his hands and roll his shoulders in slight nervousness. Finally, the alien spoke again, "Come again vessel, did you say Anchorhead?"

It was too late to back out now, "Affirmative." Revan replied.

"Well, I don't know what you want with a dying mining town, but I don't get paid enough to ask questions. Just remember, you're in Hutt space now, don't cause any trouble on Tatooine if you know what's good for your health."

Revan chuckled slightly before quickly responding, "Thank you for the advice."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." The alien dismissively said before ending the transmission.

Revan looked back at the planet before him, "I guess even Tatooine changes a little after thousands of years." He then gripped the controls tighter and began his descent.

* * *

A large thunderstorm began to form over a quiet forest on the planet Serenno. The animals of the forest began to scatter into their respective burrows and nests. The relative silence was soon broken as a blaster bolt flew through the air and struck the truck of a tree just above one of its largest branches. A half-second before the bolt landed a black-cloaked figure jumped from the branch with incredible speed, barely escaping a fatal hit.

The figure continued to jump between the branches of the forest as more shots rang out, each one streaking through the air with deadly accuracy and intent. Moving quickly along the same path as the cloaked individual were four heavily modified BX-Series Commando Droids. The Separatist droids pursued their target with both agility and speed, making use of jetpacks, grappling hooks, and hydraulic pistons within their legs. These instruments allowed them to match the pace and speed of the cloaked figure. The droid's advanced sensors and targeting systems would have meant death to any other individual, but their current target was barely staying alive thanks to their sheer velocity and unpredictable movements.

As the droids continued to slowly close the close gap between them and their prey, one of the commandos quickly calculated the next most probable move for its target and in an instant turned its weapon to fire on a branch in front of the target.

Before the cloaked individual could react, the branch they had decided to jump to next was hit with several shots, causing it to break and fall away to the forest floor below. Cursing under their breath, the figure quickly twisted themselves in mid-air, altering their course enough to push off the trunk of that same tree and quickly leap to a different branch that would hold them. Unfortunately, while this reaction did save them from dropping several stories, it had also caused their momentum to slow, giving the droids a few precious seconds to decrease their gap. Blaster bolts flew around the figure, one of which grazed their right shoulder, causing them to wince in pain. This mistake seemed to anger the figure and they launched from their momentary pause with even greater speed than before.

The chase continued for several moments with heated intensity. The figure continued to dance between the trees in a flurry of flips, spins, kicks and practiced grace and skill, while the pursing droids represented more of a bulldozer as they blasted and tore their way along the same path.

The figure's movements just barely began to slow. The commando's inhuman vision caught this change, and just as the four droids aimed their blasters to take a final shot, the figure suddenly jumped straight to the forest floor. The droids only took one-tenth of a second to recalculate and respond to this unprecedented move, each of them quickly diving after their prey. The four pursuers rapidly made their way down to the floor, and with the use of their jetpacks managed to land in a coordinated box shape, surrounding the figure.

The cloaked individual stood in front of the base of a large tree, clearly one of the oldest within the forest. They were looking directly at the truck of the tree, with their back to the droids that had just landed. Attached to the trunk were two curved lightsaber hilts, each one a combination of silver and black metal. The figure reached out a hand and the two sabers were quickly pulled through the air by an invisible force. As soon as they reached the figure's hands, two crimson red blades were activated and the figure turned to face their pursuers.

Upon seeing the activated lightsabers, the droids slowly lowered their blasters. After a brief moment of calculations, each commando pulled out a sword from their back and took an offensive stance. The figure slowly raised one hand and beckoned for a fight.

The four commandos charged at once, coordinating their attacks with deadly precision. Blades clashed with sabers as the figure moved with almost blinding speed, blocking each of the strikes perfectly as they came, before elegantly moving to intercept the next attack. After several moments of heated blocking and striking, the figure leaped out from between the commandos and landed behind the north-most one. Before the droid could properly react, a saber blade broke through the chest of the droid causing sparks and sputtering's to emit from it. The blade quickly traveled upward and sliced the top half of the droid in two, exposing its super-heated internal components. Two more droids rushed their opponent, but one was dropped with a swift kick followed by a slice across its chest, while the other missed its swing and instantly received a saber through one of its eyes in response. The last droid used its jetpack to ascend above the figure and come down hard with a strike from above, but the figure managed to roll away from underneath it. The droid turned and went to intercept a red blade with its sword, but at the last moment the saber turned off, leaving the droid paused and recalculating for just a fraction of a second, but that was all it took for the second saber to find it's mark, cutting the droid in two at the waist.

A new silence slowly began to settle over the fresh battle scene, only disturbed by the hum of a lightsaber, the sparks and smoke of several destroyed droids, and the faint breathing of the cloaked figure. As a new wave of thunder began to roll over the valley from the approaching storm, a quiet beep started to originate from the figure's black robes. The figure quickly turned off their remaining saber and reached onto their hip to pull out a small holocommunicator from beneath their clothing.

Before answering the incoming call, Asajj Ventress removed her hood and mask from around her face. Pressing the side of her communicator, the small, yet detailed form of Count Dooku appeared in her hand, glowing a transparent blue. Bowing her head slightly she spoke, "What is thy bidding, my master?"

"I see you have completed your exercise with the new commando droids, well done." Count Dooku's voice carried a hint of approval, but his aristocratic tone quickly defaulted back to its normal seriousness. "But I have not called to check on the progress of your training. Return to the castle at once. I have a new assignment for you."

"I will arrive shortly, my lord." Ventress replied with another bow.

"Do not keep me waiting." Dooku stated before ending the transmission.

Ventress soon arrived at Castle Serenno by means of a STAP, which had been waiting for her nearby in the forest. The Sith assassin quickly made her way into one of the grand halls of the castle, where Dooku was waiting, seated behind a large, white, ornately carved desk. The white, grey, and green halls of House Serenno were made with expert craftsmanship and every level of the large complex had been created to display wealth, power, and authority. Ventress always thought the palace was a little too gaudy but would never dare to say anything even appearing to be negative about her master's home.

Now dressed in her usual Sith attire, she swiftly made her way to the foot of a small set of stairs that led up to the desk at the end of the room. The green hue of the large circular window behind Dooku cast an eerie glow over the space. "What is my new mission?" Ventress asked as she knelt a few feet from the bottom-most step.

Dooku looked down at his apprentice/assassin, a slight flash of approval crossed his old features but quickly disappeared into his usual scowling expression. He slowly rose from his chair and made his way to the front of the desk, speaking as he did so. "I have recently been informed of an interesting situation. The Jedi are hunting a supposed terrorist and have tracked him to Tatooine. There are some...concerns about the identity of this individual."

"Why should an enemy of the Jedi be a concern to us?" Ventress asked with half confusion and half curiosity.

Dooku quickly glared down at his kneeling assassin. "Do not interrupt me with your pointless questions."

His voice carried only a slight hint of anger, but it was enough to cause Ventress to crouch lower towards the ground. "Forgive me, master."

Dooku glared for only a moment longer before settling back down again. "You are to go to Tatooine, with an escort of MagnaGuards, and bring this individual back to me. Dead or alive does not matter. What is paramount is that the Jedi walk away with nothing. A ship is already fueled, loaded, and waiting for you in the hangar, along with a datapad containing all the information you need. The Jedi are already ahead of you, so you must move quickly if you are to succeed."

Ventress quickly stood and bowed her head to her master before saying, "I will leave at once, my lord."

"Be cautious Ventress. This unknown person has held their own against several Jedi Masters at once. Do not underestimate them."

"My power has grown considerably, thanks to your teaching. I will not fail." She stated confidently before turning and making her way out of the room.

"See that you do not." Dooku spoke in response as she left, before quietly saying, "For your sake."

* * *

An Ithorian mechanic sat at his dust-covered desk in one of the few still operating hangars in the small mining town of Anchorhead. Several old and busted data pads laid across the desk, which sat against the single dusty window of a cramped, makeshift workspace. The room was filled with shelves containing anything from busted droids, damaged ship parts, or various power tools most of which were too clogged with sand to work properly. Sterr had bought the old hangar years ago, right when he had heard that Anchorhead was going to be resettled for the first time in several hundred years. His friends had sold him on the idea, convinced him that the ore deposits found just outside of the abandoned settlement's walls were going to make everyone who came there filthy rich. But just like most things in Sterr's life, the reality had been much harsher than he had been prepared for.

While the town did see an initial financial boom as different companies and prospectors came out to see if the newly found ore deposits were of any value, and several waves of people rushed to the once-bustling city in hopes of a better life, soon the settlement was back on the brink of abandonment. The initial findings of ore had been deceptive, to say the least, and after less than one solar cycle, the most valuable deposits had already been dug up, leaving only mediocre metals that were barely usable. At that point, most people left the town again, but the few that still could be paid to mine stayed; them and the ones that lived at the cantina. Sterr would have left as well, but he had no other prospects, no other skills to fall back on, and had spent all of his savings on buying the largest hanger in the town; a decision he still hated himself for. The only thing that had kept the Ithorian afloat was the occasional arrival of hunters who would spend several weeks out in the vast dunes looking for uncommon creatures to capture or kill and bring back to the core worlds, but lately, even the hunters had stopped coming.

Sterr sat at his desk, looking at his desperate financial situation. He had taken out a loan to keep himself going a few weeks ago but being his normal naive self, he had no idea the financier had been an enforcer for the Hutts, not until a few unsavory individuals had shown up yesterday and threatened to burn the hangar down if he didn't pay back what he owed plus interest. Things seemed hopeless. The tired Ithorian let out a long sigh before closing his eyes and resting his head on the desk.

Before the mechanic could spiral further in his mental depression, a few items on the desk subtlety began to shake. Sterr opened one eye in confusion and glanced around as more and more items began to shake around him. Quickly, Sterr bolted up as the uncommon, yet familiar sensation hit him that a ship was coming in to land. He looked out of the window as his few pit droids began to activate inside the hangar and run around in a panicked and unpracticed frenzy, crashing into one another and tripping over randomly scattered tools and miscellaneous parts.

Sterr quickly ran out of his cramped workspace, and stood on the edge of the hangar, raising a hand to help block the sun as he looked into the sky hoping for an incoming ship. A large shadow finally fell over the hangar as a ship began to lower itself into the walled-off area. Sterr's eyes went wide as he looked at a full luxury Yacht descended into his piece of property. He had only seen a ship that expensive on the holonet.

As the dust settled, which had been kicked up from the ship's engines, a smooth white ramp slowly lowered from under the front portion of the hull, and a humanoid individual, covered in a large brown hooded robe stepped out from the ship and approached Sterr. The Ithorian quickly shook himself out of his stupor and kicked one of his pit droids that was still running around. He began to feel very nervous as it had been almost a year since he had last had a visitor. "We-welcome s-sir. M-my name i-iss St-sterr." He began to stutter out in slightly broken Basic.

Revan walked up to the clearly nervous Ithorian and stopped a few feet away from the mechanic. He slowly glanced around the hangar he had landed in. It had been the only one large enough to accommodate his ship, but now he was slightly regretting his decision. The whole hangar was a mess, parts scattered everywhere, the three pit droids were clearly in need of cleaning and repair, and the whole place looked like it was beginning to be absorbed back into the dunes of Tatooine. Revan finally turned his attention to the dirty Ithorian before him. Revan sensed that he was worried, yet honest, hardworking, and in desperate need of help. Revan had always had a slight admiration for Ithorians and wished the galaxy valued their dependability and humility more. But sadly, they were often used and mistreated by those around them, and this lowly mechanic seemed to be no exception.

Revan pulled his hood down to reveal his unmasked face and gave Sterr a small but reassuring smile. Revan had found the large, bulky, brown cloak on the ship, along with other items of clothing, and decided to use it to cover his usual appearance. His mask and sabers hung on the side of his belt also hidden away but reassuring close. He then spoke in not perfect, but decent Ithorese, "Thank you for the warm welcome Sterr."

Sterr's eyes widened greatly as he heard his native tongue come out of the human before him. He could not help himself as his features broke into what his species would describe as a 'large grin' and he responded back in Ithorese with great energy and enthusiasm, "Oh sir, I cannot begin to describe how wonderful it is to hear my own tongue again! I have not had the pleasure in many years!"

Revan frowned slightly at this bit of information, "Are there no other Ithorians here in Anchorhead?"

Sterr's enthusiasm quickly fell along with his 'grin' as he answered, "I am afraid not sir. There are only a few hundred individuals in all of Anchorhead at present. Most have given up on this Sarlacc pit of a town since most of the mines dried up."

"I see..." Revan said as he glanced around once more with a slightly different perspective on the scene before him, "Then I am curious Sterr, if you do not mind me being so bold, why are you still here?"

Sterr looked down at the ground and nervously kicked some sand with his foot, "...Because of my debts, sir. That, and I am afraid even without them, I do not have anywhere else to go to start my life over."

Revan nodded slowly at this information. After a moment of silence, he finally spoke again, "Well Sterr," The Ithorian quickly looked up, "It seems my ship is in need of fuel and a tune-up. I believe the left engine was causing me a slight lean as I came in for reentry. Are you able to take a look at her for me?"

Sterr's eyes narrowed slightly as he slowly gazed down the side of the ship. The Yacht looked to be in near-perfect condition, and he doubted it would take much time or be worth much as far as payment for labor went. A part of his mind began to creep in with the idea that he should lie to this human and take longer than necessary to work on his ship, maybe even give a false report on what needed to be done. He desperately needed the money and this human obviously had plenty, so what was the harm in a few false claims?

Sterr quickly shook these thoughts from his mind, they weren't in his character. He was an Ithorian of integrity and honor. No matter how bad things got in life or how much he lost, he could at least hold on to his dignity. Having made up his mind, he turned to Revan and said, "I can do a thorough inspection of your vessel, sir. However, from my own observation, she seems to be nearly perfect at a glance. I do not believe it will take me much time to repair what minor issues there may be, and my pit droids can refuel your ship with haste."

Revan, who had been sensing in the Force the Ithorian's brief moral dilemma, smiled slightly as the Ithorian gave his predictions for the work that needed to be done. "I understand. I will need a thorough inspection of the entire ship, top to bottom. I do not exactly trust the man I... acquired it from. However, I am more than happy to pay you a retainer fee upfront for ensuring the safety of the vessel and paying you the full cost of your labor and parts on my return. Simply tell what it cost you and I will gladly pay, no questions."

Sterr's eyes went wide yet again as he heard this generous offer from a very amicable human. He quickly stumbled out a reply so as not to stay stunned, "Oh, uh, of course, sir! My droids and I will conduct a complete diagnostic of your ship. And as for watching your ship, normally I give a flat fee at the end of my work, usually 50 credits, sir."

Revan nodded before slowly walking around the Ithorian and purposefully looking for something. "That is agreeable. While on the subject of upfront pay..." His eyes finally settled on what he had been looking for, "Is that a working land speeder?" He asked as he gestured to an almost fully covered, under a dusty tarp, Zephyr-G swoop bike.

Sterr's gaze slowly drifted across the hangar to where Revan was pointing and settled with a mix of confusion and surprise. "Well...Yes, that is my personal speeder bike, modified her myself. Haven't used her in ages mind you, but she still runs."

"How does it handle the dunes?" Revan asked as he made his way over to the covered bike.

Sterr quickly followed, "Fantastically. I built her for long-distance travel. Had to compensate for that with some of the thruster max speed. As a result, she will burn out if you try to take her to full speed, but she's never broken down on me. Most dependable thing I own."

Revan reached his destination and quickly pulled the tarp away, throwing a great cloud of dust and revealing a slightly rusted, but overall well-maintained bike. Revan quickly looked over the vehicle and saw that it was indeed modified. It seemed this mechanic was far better skilled than his work environment indicated. Revan nodded before turning to look at Sterr. "I would like to rent your bike."

"Well sir, I would be happy to lend it to you, but I am afraid the town is far too small for you to have any need of it here while you wait for my work to complete."

Revan chuckled slightly and shook his head, "No, no. You misunderstand me my Ithorian friend, I intend to take her out into the wastes, far outside the city walls."

Sterr was slightly surprised by this information, but quickly asked, "Are you a hunter then, sir?"

Revan smirked slightly at the question, "Depends on the day."

Sterr was confused by this answer but decided it was best not to question it. "Very well sir. I am slightly embarrassed to say I do not know what a fair price would be to charge you for the use of my bike."

Revan responded, "Seeing as how you are taking the extra time to watch my ship while I am away, and this is your prized personal vehicle, I would say... 5,000 credits would be a fair fee for all this."

The Ithorian almost choked on the air he was breathing when he heard that number. He began to sputter out a distressed explanation of how that was far too much to be a fair deal, and he couldn't possibly accept, but Revan simply raised his hand to stop him. "It is refreshing to deal with an honest individual for a change. Consider this my personal thanks, and assurance that you will take great care in looking through my ship."

After a few moments of intense emotions, Sterr finally stood up straight and nodded with confidence, "Of course sir. You can count on me."

Revan smiled, reached into his pocket, and handed Sterr the credits along with a small, hand-held communicator which had also come from the ship. "Keep that close in case I have need to contact you, and of course feel free to call me with any updates you have." He explained.

Sterr nodded. "Of course. I will get to work immediately. Happy hunting, sir."

Revan smiled in response before turning, mounting the speeder bike, and with an experienced kick the engine roared to life, and he quickly flew out of the hangar.

Sterr watched the man leave, he looked down at the credits in his hand wondering how he had been fortunate enough to be given this freedom. He clenched the credits tightly, before turning towards the ship with a renewed energy.

* * *

The soft jazz-like music of a large band slowly echoed through the underground clay halls of Jabba's Palace. The large Hutt crime lord sat on his custom throne with a bored expression. Around him was the general murmur of guards, advisors, and a few droid assistants. The cool, dusty, room was relatively quiet but still filled with the usual scum and villainy that always occupied the main hall.

As Jabba began to slowly drift into his standard afternoon nap, one of his advisors cautiously approached the large Hutt and with a shaky hand reached out to gently tap Jabba's arm. "Uh...Great Jabba."

The crime lord jolted slightly as his peaceful mind was disturbed by the intrusion. Several eyes turned in the direction of the large throne in response to Jabba's movements. Some stared skeptically at the advisor who had dared to disturb the short-tempered Hutt.

Jabba turned slightly to acknowledge the advisor and said in groggy, but clearly annoyed Huttese, "You better have a good reason for disturbing me..."

The advisor quickly bowed and rapidly spoke in a nervous tone, "Of course your excellency. I deeply apologize for disturbing you, but I thought it best to inform you of a transmission waiting for you."

Jabba growled slightly as he turned fully to glare at the shriveling alien beside him, "And who is calling me that is important enough to not be told to wait?" Hearing their master's clear anger, several Gamorrean guards raised their war axes and took a slight step towards the throne.

The advisor jumped back slightly at the surrounding hostility, but quickly continued in his explanation, "The pirate Hondo Ohnaka, my liege."

Upon hearing this Jabba paused as his emotions quickly shifted to curiosity. "Hmmm... That is interesting... Pull up the transmission!" Jabba ordered loudly, drawing the attention of the entire room.

An astromech droid quickly wheeled itself to the middle of the floor in front of the throne and projected a full-sized hologram. After a few seconds of blurry connection, the transparent blue image of Hondo Ohnaka stood in the middle of the palace hall. "Jabba!" The Weequay spoke with his trademark accent and showmanship mannerisms. "It has been a long time, my old friend. May I just say that you look fantastic!" He gestured widely with both hands at the Hutt who simply raised a brow in skepticism. "Have you lost weight?"

"Hondo!" Jabba answered back loudly in his deep guttural tone. "I am surprised to see your face here, especially after our last encounter..." The crime lord let his sentence trail off with a slight growl.

Hondo quickly raised his two hands in front of him and took a step back. "Come on now, what's a few tons of spice to men like us, huh? Besides, your men said it was your shipment, my men said your men were already dead when they boarded the ship, who's to say what really happened?" Jabba growled at Hondo upon hearing this. "Easy my Hutt friend, let us not allow a small squabble in our past get blown out of proportion! Besides, have our other dealings not been very, very profitable for all parties involved?"

Jabba scoffed slightly before asking bluntly, "Stop wasting my time pirate. What do you want?"

Hondo nodded his head slightly at this, "Yes, yes, the ever-impatient Jabba, always waiting to get straight to the point. Very well! I am calling you today, oh great Jabba of Tatooine, to inform you of a very... profitable piece of information. I am sure you have heard stirrings of a Republic terrorist who recently escaped Coruscant? The one who currently has a rather sizable bounty on his head? Well, I just so happen to know where he is..." The room had been watching the exchange between the two crime lords with some amused interest, but at this last piece of information, most members of the audience were leaning forward in their chairs or tightly gripping their blasters. Most had seen the bounty when it was created, then it had doubled and finally tripled when news broke to the public that the criminal had managed to escape the planet.

Jabba watched Hondo's face for any signs of deception or trickery, but his usual enthusiastic smile revealed nothing. "What do you want Hondo?" The Hutt finally broke the several tense moments of silence.

Hondo's smile widened slightly, and he stood up straight before answering, "For this amazing piece of information, my price is..." The room leaned in closer in anticipation, "Nothing." Jabba's eyes widened in surprise at this and surprised murmurings began to make their way around the room. After giving adequate time for the surprise to settle, Hondo continued, "He is in Anchorhead, right in your backyard of Tatooine."

Several humans and aliens began to stir more obviously, and the conversations began to grow slightly louder. Jabba quickly glared around the room to bring the levels of noise down, which they immediately did, then turned back to the hologram and asked, "What's your trick here, pirate?"

Hondo's face turned into a large frown and one hand slapped against his chest. "Oh! Who, me? Trick? Jabba I am offended! Truly, after all we have been through, how could you accuse me of such things?" Before Jabba could answer Hondo dropped the act and laughed loudly. "Oh Jabba, no one can pull anything over you, so I will tell you- oh?" Hondo's gaze seemed to move to something in his environment. "Oh, I am so sorry my friend, but I must go, business never sleeps, as you know! Good luck with the bounty!" And the call was terminated.

The room fell silent for several moments before several individuals stood up and began to argue loudly about who would claim the bounty. Tensions quickly rose as blasters began to be drawn and pointed around the room.

Suddenly, a loud yell reverberated around the room, causing small clouds of dust and sand to shake off the cool clay walls. The arguing immediately ceased as all eyes turned to the source of the noise, which was a very annoyed looking Jabba the Hutt. This, combined with several Gamorrean guards standing at full attention, made it very clear to the various hunters and assassins that there would no fighting in the palace.

Finally, a deep, gravelly voice spoke up from one of the darker corners of the room, "I'll be taking that bounty." Most of the room turned towards the source of the noise and watched as a brown leather-clad figure, with a wide-brimmed matching brown hat that hid their face, slowly made their way to the center of the room. Aliens and humans quickly moved out of the way of the individual as they walked close and the atmosphere in the room seemed to tense up slightly. The figure finally reached the area directly in front of Jabba's throne and slowly lifted their head, revealing the distinct blue skin and almost glowing red eyes of an alien Duros. "As long as there are no objections..." Cad Bane looked at Jabba directly, waiting for the Hutt's approval to operate in his territory.

Before Jabba could respond, another voice rang out, "Now hold on there!" A group of Quarren quickly made their way into the open space of the middle of the room. "What gives this guy the nerve to think he can just claim an open bounty all to himself? I bet he couldn't hit the side of a cruiser with that ridiculous hat on! And-"

Before the alien could continue with any further insults, a shot rang out from the middle of the room. Suddenly, Bane was holding a custom silver blaster, which no one had seen him pull out until after the shot had been fired. A small stream of smoke slowly rose from between the eyes of the Quarren, who stood for a few seconds before his body finally collapsed to the floor. Bane quickly swiveled around the room now holding both blasters pointed at the ceiling, "Any other objections?" He asked loudly, challenging the room.

The criminal audience, along with a few of the guards took a step back in fear, and the previously bold Quarren group, quickly drug their former leader back into the shadows. Bane glared down a few hunters who still had their hands on their blasters before twirling his pistols and instantly holstering them back in the folds of his layered attire. The Chiss then turned back to Jabba, sliding his fingers along the edge of his hat in a practiced manner, "Now that that issue is settled… If you don't mind, I'd like to get on with my business."

Jabba simply gave a deep laugh in response and waved Bane out the door, who nodded in response, turned on his heels, and made his way up the stairs.

* * *

The vast dunes of Tatooine's rolling and ever-changing sands stretched out in all directions as a single swoop bike gracefully made its way over the never-ending terrain. Revan had equipped his mask upon leaving the settlement and was thankful for its protection, as single particles of sand created continuous metallic clinks as they bounced off its red and black surface with high velocity. Revan's head slowly scanned the horizon, keeping a vigilant eye out both physically and in the Force for any potential signs of danger. Not within physical view, Revan's mask was projecting his current geological location directly to the former dark lord and had created a simple but effective hologram display of how far he was from his intended destination.

Revan did his best to stay concentrated and not let his mind wander, the dunes of Tatooine were mysterious, treacherous, and a hiding place for all manner of dangerous entities. After an hour or so of skillful driving, Revan's tension slowly relaxed, and despite the searing heat from the dual suns, he began to enjoy the relative peace and feel of the bike. The scene around him slowly began to bring back old memories of swoop bike racing on Taris and Manaan. Revan chuckled slightly to himself as those days and events now seemed so peaceful, simple. The galaxy was far less... complicated from his perspective back then. But, then again, he had not exactly had a very clear perspective. Inevitably, memories of his former comrades began to slowly drift into his mind, and his thoughts quickly turned bitter and slightly guilty at how long it had been since their passings'.

Revan gripped the handles of the bike more firmly and increased speed, taking one of the larger sandbanks and ramping off it as a way to increase his time. Not long after his trip down memory lane, Revan's mask display notified him that he had arrived. Deftly pulling the bike to the side, Revan slid his vehicle sideways for several feet before finally coming to a full stop. Leaving the bike running, his masked gaze slowly began to scan his surroundings, invisibly changing through several different filters and types of vision through his mask's built-in visor. The area Revan had stopped in was functionally identical to the rest of Tatooine's surface, with no structures, landmarks, or even tracks to take note of.

As the former general was scanning the area before him, he stopped as he barely sensed something in the Force. Revan turned fully in his seat and to his slight surprise saw two Tusken Raiders standing some 50 feet away, just to the side of one of the larger dunes. Revan had always wondered if their people had some unique connection to the Force on this planet that allowed them to possess certain abilities. Maybe that was why the Rakata were never able to make them a slave race like the majority of the galaxy.

The sand people simply stood, both were holding slugthrower rifles almost taller than either of them, but they were not aimed at Revan. After a few moments where the old sound came from the occasional whistling of wind, Revan slowly dismounted his bike and faced the Raiders, who only turned their heads slightly in response. Revan wished that HK were here for this encounter, he quickly thought back to his interaction with this race many years ago. Taking a slight gamble, Revan slowly pulled back the large brown hood from his bulk robe, place his hands together in a specific gesture, and bowed deeply towards the two Raiders, before standing straight up again. The Tuskens did not seem to react in any noticeable way, simply watching Revan's movements. Just as he was starting to prepare for a fight the two Raiders bowed back very slightly and walked behind the dune, they had been standing beside, out of sight.

Revan gave a half-smile behind his mask; he had honestly not expected that to work as he had only barely remembered the gesture that the Tusken chief had given upon their final encounter. Enjoying his moment of good fortune, Revan turned back to the opposite side of the bike, where his gaze finally fell on one particular sand dune perpendicular to the nose of the bike.

Revan slowly made his way to the large mound of sand. Once he was several feet from the start of its gentle slope, he knelt down on a single knee, placing his hand flat against the ground beneath him. The wind picked up and whipped his oversized coat around him. After a few moments of silent concentration, the sand around Revan began to slowly lift straight up. As more and more particles of sand started to float around him, a faint rumbling sound could be heard coming from a few feet in front of him. As the seconds passed, the sound became louder and louder, and the ground around Revan began to shake.

Suddenly, several dark grey boulders and various large rocks burst from the bottom of the tall sand dune directly in front of him. They were launched with a considerable amount of force, flying over his head or to his side and landing in various scattered positions around him with powerful and loud impacts. In response to the long-buried foundation being suddenly removed, the majority of the sand dune and most of the sand directly in front of Revan began to rapidly fall into the now vacant underground space, sending up a large cloud of dust that encompassed the area.

Once the sand finally stopped shifting, the sand cloud was quickly dispersed as a wave of Force energy blasted out from the middle of the cloud. Revan slowly stood up straight and dusted the few remaining bits of sand off of his cloak. He found himself once again very thankful for the sealed mask and air filters he was breathing through. Several feet in front of Revan was now only a quarter of the original sand dune, and immediately before him was now a large, deep, black pit, with a gentle ramp made out of sand leading down into it. Taking a deep breath, Revan slowly made his way down into the darkness.

* * *

A nervous Ahsoka Tano sat in the main hold of a Jedi T-6 shuttle slowly rubbing her hands in an absent-minded fashion while her bright blue eyes stared straight into the floor. She had gotten her wish and was added on to the strike team with her old master's recommendation, but now that she was here the ever-present voice of doubt slowly began to creep into the back of her mind. The presence of two Jedi Masters, whom she greatly respected, and her own master all being present to observe her actions didn't help her mental worry. Her only present comfort was the relatively peaceful hum of hyperspace, and the slight rhythmic movement of the ship's faster than light travel.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the door to the cockpit opened and Anakin Skywalker stepped into the main compartment, followed quickly by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Adi Gallia. "How are you holding up Snips?" Anakin asked as way of greeting, his face showing slight concern at reading his apprentice's nervous demeanor.

"Huh? Oh, sorry master." Ahsoka shook her head slightly as Anakin's question finally registered in her mind. "I'm alright, sometimes having too much time to sit and reflect is not a helpful thing."

Obi-Wan chuckled at Ahsoka's response and said, "Wise words Ahsoka."

"I trust you are ready for this mission." Adi spoke with a hint of skepticism in her voice. "After all, it was you who was so insistent on coming."

Ahsoka took a small breath, then locked eyes with the Tholothian master, "I'm ready." She answered with willed conviction.

Adi maintained the eye lock for a few seconds, searching the padawan for any hint of wavering, but eventually nodded and took one of the wall-mounted seats.

"We've just received an update from Coruscant." Obi-Wan began as he also took a seat beside his fellow Jedi Master, "Revan has landed on Tatooine, in a small mining settlement called Anchorhead."

"Will we be able to catch him before he leaves planet again?"

"Honestly? No clue." Anakin stated bluntly, having chosen to stay standing, simply leaning against the bulkhead as he answered. "He could take off at any moment." Ahsoka's brow rose slightly as she noticed that Anakin looked slightly more tense than usual but decided to ask him about it later.

"However," Adi spoke up to offer a counterpoint, "thanks to Hondo's tracking information, if Revan does leave Tatooine before we arrive, it will be a simple matter to follow him."

"Things involving Revan haven't exactly gone 'simply' since we started this hunt." Obi-Wan stated contemplatively as he gently stroked his beard.

"Do we have any idea why he chose to land on Tatooine? Or why this random mining town?"

"Not at the moment." Anakin responded as he pulled out a datapad from behind his back. "We have a few Jedi back at the temple sending us all of the information they can find on the settlement, but Republic records barely have any information on it. Even growing up on Tatooine, I never heard of this place."

"We are also having a few Jedi historians go through all the records still available on Revan's life to see if he has any connection to the town." Kenobi added on to Anakin's answer. "But that is proving slightly... difficult."

"Why's that?" Ahsoka asked in confusion.

The three Jedi glanced at each other before Adi finally stepped in with an answer. "Apparently the Jedi Council of Revan's time determined that much of his history contained too much sensitive information to be left completely unedited, so they removed some parts of Revan's history."

Anakin scoffed slightly at Adi's explanation, which earned him a side glare from Obi-Wan. "What's of most importance," Kenobi continued with, "is that we find Revan and bring him in alive."

"Which brings us to you Ahsoka." Adi interjected with, "You mentioned when we were about to leave the Temple that you could sense Revan, even when he tried to hide his presence in the Force. Could you explain a bit further for us?"

Ahsoka's eyes fell to the floor as the three other Jedi now fully turned their attention towards her. She took a moment to collect her thoughts before slowly speaking, "...I... don't know exactly." The Jedi waited for Ahsoka to continue. "While Barriss and I were going through the Archives, I noticed that someone was in there with us, but Barriss couldn't sense them. We went to investigate and only afterward did I find out that no one in the Temple had been able to sense Revan." She then looked up to make eye-contact with each Jedi, "I don't know how to explain it, but it happened."

The Jedi were silent for several moments, each with a thoughtful expression on their face. "This could be a useful tool to our advantage, especially if Revan tries to escape again." Kenobi finally broke the silence with a positive statement.

"There is also a possibility of danger." Adi interjected, "If Ahsoka has some sort of connection between herself and Revan in the Force, it may also give him an advantage over knowing our movements. We may need to leave her with the ship and only bring her in if we have need of her."

Ahsoka was about to protest when Anakin spoke up, "Hold on now." All members in the hold turned to look at the Knight. "Revan was able to sense all of the Jedi in the Temple and make his way through it completely undetected, I do not believe that bringing Ahsoka along is immediately putting us or her in danger. The only thing I care about," He paused slightly as he moved to stand in front of his apprentice, he knelt down slightly to make his face level with hers, "is that my padawan is ready for whatever we might have to deal with down there."

Ahsoka looked at Anakin for several moments, seeing the concern in his eyes. "I can do this, master." She said with a steady and assured voice.

"Well, I'm convinced." Adi said as a way to break the tension around them.

"I am as well." Kenobi agreed, "Now, we should spend our remaining time working on a battle plan for when we arrive." Before the Jedi Master could finish his suggestion, a noise began to emanate from the cockpit.

"I think your plan is going to have to wait Obi-Wan." Anakin said with a slight frown as he got up and moved towards the cockpit. "We are about to come out of hyperspace."

Ahsoka watched her master go to pilot the ship. Adi and Obi-Wan began to pass some strategic ideas between each other. Ahsoka's mind slowly started to block out the noise around her. Her eyes slowly went to the floor as her hands started to rub together in an absent-minded fashion.

* * *

Revan slid down several feet of the newly made sand ramp until he finally came to a more level area of sand. The light from above him barely penetrated the dark cave that Revan now stood at the entrance of. The darkness around him was heavy and suffocating, it seemed to latch on to him as he slowly moved around the space. Revan tapped the side of his mask causing a bright flashlight to emit from a series of hidden lights just below his visor, yet even the extra illumination could hardly make a dent in the dark cave.

Revan slowly looked around at his environment. The cave ceiling had large stalagmites hanging straight down into almost sharp points, like teeth of an ancient stone monster, and Revan was standing in the middle of the jaw. He took a deep breath through his air filters, which caused a slight echo to reverberate deeper into the cave. He could feel the dark side calling out to him, but its presence was faint, old, and never dying.

Revan slowly began making his way into the ancient cave, the sounds of crunching sand underneath his heavy boots were amplified as they bounced off the smooth dusty stone walls. He continued on through the cave as shadows danced and moved around him like dark memories on the edge of his psyche. Eventually, after several moments of walking, Revan's light finally landed on an object.

Standing in the middle of the room was a chest-high, dark grey, obelisk, covered in ancient runes and writings. Revan sighed slightly as he looked at the half-buried in sand Star Map, and a flood of memories came back to him. Now, at the center of the cave the dark side called out to him even stronger, it knew him, and it wanted him back.

Clenching his fist slightly, Revan finally shook himself out of his maze of thoughts and nightmares and made his way around the Star Map, towards the very back of the cave. He scanned the floor in an intentional manner for a few seconds before finally kneeling down, opening a hand fully just above the ground, and after a few seconds of almost deafening silence, the sand below his hand began to move. Suddenly, a small, palm-sized, bronze metal cube, covered in faint green lines hovered out of the sand and directly into Revan's open palm, causing his fingers to tightly grip around it.

Standing back up, Revan looked at the cube in his hand. It had been a strange memory that had come to him that night. During his time as Dark Lord of the Sith, Revan had discovered many of the Rakata's secrets, and this was perhaps the greatest of them all. Channeling the Force into his hand, the cube's green lines glowed in response, then out of one of the corners, a small star map showing a specific sector of the galaxy was displayed into the air. Revan studied the map intensely, the information this item contained was too powerful for anyone in the galaxy to be fully aware of, that is why he had decided the risk was not worth taking all those years ago. He had decided to hide the information here, on Tatooine. Not only was the planet a natural kind of vault for all manner of ancient and hidden relics but placing the cube so close to one of the fabled Star Maps meant that anyone who came here would naturally assume that that was the only prize to be had. No one would ever look for a different treasure in a room with such an obvious prize in front of them. When He had been on Coruscant just a few days ago, Revan had made a decision about where he needed to go, but now, remembering what his older self had concluded, he wondered if the risk was worth taking this time.

Eventually, he pressed the side of the cube and the map was pulled back into the box. It was his only option. He turned and made his way back to the surface. As he emerged from the cave and began walking back to his bike, Revan's internal communicator began to beep. Tapping the side of his mask as he walked, Revan spoke, "Go ahead."

A familiar, but much more confident and excited Ithorian voice responded in Revan's ear. "Hello, sir! I trust your hunting is going well?"

Revan smiled slightly at hearing Sterr's voice, "Hello Sterr, it is going quite well. I am on my way back to you now. How goes the work on my ship?"

Revan could hear the mechanic yell at his droids at the sound of something heavy being dropped. "It's progressing well, sir. We are almost done with the minor repairs and she's been completely fueled. However," Revan frowned slightly at the tone change, "I did find something interesting I thought you should be aware of."

"Continue." Revan simply stated as he reached and mounted his bike, not yet turning it on.

"The first thing I did for your ship was run a full diagnostic and that was when I noticed a strange reading. Extra power was being routed to your Navigational Systems, not much more than the standard configuration, but still noticeable. Not being able to help myself, I decided to investigate your systems further. I started by checking to see if your ship's navi-computer had any need for the extra power, but I couldn't find it. I must say, sir, you have a very impressive ship." Revan smirked slightly but let Sterr continue his long-winded explanation. "Anyway, I was not satisfied with my findings, so I hope you do not mind sir, but I made the choice to uncover your computer's wiring and look at the physical parts. I remember you mentioned you did not fully trust the individual you acquired this ship from, and it seems your intuition was correct, sir."

"What did you find?"

"A hidden extra component integrated into your navi-computer. I have seen some items like this, but nothing this well made, it's honestly ingenious! No one would have been able to tell it was there without physically-"

Revan gently cut the Ithorian off in the middle of his excited explanation, "Sterr. What does it do?"

"Oh, yes, my apologies sir. It transmits all of your navigational information directly to an outside source that is linked to it."

Revan gripped a handle of the bike tightly on hearing this, but after taking a breath, he chuckled slightly and shook his head. It seemed he had ended up underestimating the pirate captain after all, well played.

"Sir?" Sterr spoke after a moment, "Are you still reading me?"

"I'm here." Revan replied. "Can you remove it?"

There were sounds of a few sparks and Ithorian curses, then Sterr finally answered, "It is well integrated, the installer knew what they were doing." There was another pause before he continued. "However, I believe I can, given a few hours."

Revan was about to answer when the Force suddenly surged around him and into his mind. His mind blared with an internal warning of danger. He had been targeted, his location was known, and now he could feel that several hunters had arrived on Tatooine and were headed straight for him. He steadied his mind, and scanned his surroundings, looking over the endless dunes around him. His mind quickly calculated a large number of possible strategies, but as most were eliminated due to too many complications, it eventually settled on the soundest option to move forward.

Sighing slightly, Revan spoke again, "Sterr?"

"Yes, I am here sir."

"I will double your pay if you can get that thing off my ship in less than an hour."

There was a long pause before Sterr finally answered in an excited tone. "O-of course sir! Your ship will be ready for you before you arrive, I promise!"

"Good man. I will return soon. Once you are able to, get the ship started and ready to leave." Before Sterr could answer, Revan tapped the side of his mask again, ending the transmission. He quickly removed the large brown cloak, revealing his full black, red, and silver attire. He checked his armor, tightened his gauntlets, and adjusted his lightsabers into slightly different positions. Content with what he had done and giving one last pat check to the cube buried deep in his robes, he grabbed the bike's handles, kicked the vehicle to life, and took off back towards Anchorhead. 


End file.
